


An Angel With No Wings

by lightace



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-31
Updated: 2014-08-31
Packaged: 2018-02-15 13:51:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 44,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2231457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightace/pseuds/lightace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For over a decade, Storybrooke hasn’t changed, but the day Emma Swan shows up on her doorstep, Regina Mills’ life is turned upside down. Not because she’s afraid Emma is going to try and take her son away, but because eleven years ago in the Enchanted Forest, Emma died.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the second Swan Queen Big Bang.
> 
> Thanks to the mods for running this event (for which you both have my eternal respect because I'm sure it's crazy) the anons on tumblr for the motivational messages, and my artist y0ungatheart for being my artist this round (give their art some love too)!
> 
> Title from the Owl City song Up All Night, because I'm terrible with creating titles and stealing from songs that relate to what I'm writing is convenient.

Emma Swan tossed her keys into the bowl beside the door with more force than necessary, almost sending it toppling over the edge of the table. It stopped just shy of falling, but Emma was already in the kitchen, shedding her jacket and tossing it on the counter.

Her first instinct was to grab a beer out of the fridge – she definitely felt like she’d deserved it after having to spend a few hours of her birthday picking up some scumbag – but something stopped her, and she instead pulled the cupcake she’d bought out of its box and set it on the counter.

She yanked open a drawer and dug out the package of candles she’d been using for the last several years. Only using one candle a year helped the box last a very long time. She stuck the candle into the icing of the cupcake with a sarcastically mumbled “Happy birthday to me.”

There was a cigarette lighter in the pocket of her jacket that she kept there out of habit; she’d stopped smoking years ago. She lit the little candle and stared at it with a feeling of bitterness she’d become more than accustomed to over the course of her life. This was hardly the first time she’d been alone on her birthday, and she had no reason to believe next year wouldn’t be more of the same.

“Another banner year,” she muttered under her breath and squeezed her eyes shut. Her wish had been the same for years: to not have to spend her birthday alone, but it almost seemed pointless after so long. She’d been alone for twenty-eight years, her parents not even having the decency to leave her on someone’s doorstep and instead dropping her on the side of a freeway.

But she wished anyway and blew out the candle, staring at the smoke spiraling up for a few moments, lost in thought again.

A loud knock shocked her upright, and she eyed the front door warily. Who could be out there? She had no family, no friends, no one that cared enough to visit her apartment.

Cautiously, she approached the door, but when she opened it, the hallway was empty. She looked either way down the hall before deciding it must have been someone’s idea of a funny prank and moving to shut the door again.

“Are you Emma Swan?” a voice asked suddenly, and she looked down to see a young boy standing there, smiling and looking at her expectantly.

“Um, yeah?”

“My name’s Henry,” he chirped, his face lighting up happily. “I’m your son.”

The world seemed to stop. Emma’s jaw hit the floor, and she gaped openly at the kid, who didn’t seem to be the slightest bit affected by her sudden impersonation of a fish. This kid couldn’t be her son; he would only be–

She frowned at the kid as she quickly did the math. “How old are you?”

“I turned ten last month,” he answered easily. He leaned forward and tried to see inside, then turned his head back up at her, still with that bright smile. “Can I come in?”

Without waiting for her response, which honestly might have never come, he squeezed past her and scampered inside, and she recovered quickly. She turned to see him walk around the counter, his attention apparently caught by her cupcake. “Kid, seriously? How do you know I’m your mom?”

“I have my ways,” the kid answered cryptically. “Hey, can I have this?”

He was pointing at the cupcake, and despite Emma wanting to say no, she found herself nodding. The kid’s grin widened impossibly more, and he immediately plucked the candle out and began peeling away the paper. Once he had, he stuffed the entire thing in his mouth at once, and if there was ever a sign he was her kid, it was that. Her lack of etiquette must be genetic.

She sighed and finally shut the door as he slowly chewed the cupcake; it was incredible that he’d manage to get it all into his mouth. When he finally managed to swallow, he grinned at her, and she could see some of the icing had stuck between his teeth.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked cheerily, and Emma frowned at him, an action that he quickly mirrored. “I want you to come home with me.”

“Why would I do that?” Emma asked, stepping over to stand on the opposite side of the counter from him.

He smiled up at her. “Because I want you to, and I think you want to too.” She raised an eyebrow, and his grin turned cheeky.

“Fine,” she relented. She would go with him and drop him off at his home and then leave. She’d been in Boston longer than she usually stayed in one place; a reason to move on had just been dropped right in her lap, and she wasn’t going to question it. “Where’s home?”

“Storybrooke, Maine,” the kid replied with a completely straight face, and she suspected her eyebrows rose so far up her face that they met her hairline.

“Storybrooke?” she repeated. “Seriously?” But Henry nodded, and after a minute, she sighed and stood up. “Okay then. Give me a minute to change, and then we can leave.”

The kid’s face lit up again, and she grabbed her jacket and turned and slouched into her bedroom, glad that she’d decided to skip the alcohol.

/

Graham was the one to answer when she called the Sheriff’s station in a panic, and he showed up less than ten minutes later and calmed her enough that she was able to tell him what had happened.

She’d had a meeting run late that day, so she’d gotten home later than usual. Henry usually walked home on days that happened, but when she’d arrived, there had been no sight of him. His backpack wasn’t even there, which told her that he hadn’t been there since that morning. That was when she’d called Graham.

After she told him what happened, Graham immediately called Riley, who’d been stuck at home sick that day, but Riley hauled herself out of bed and showed up on Regina’s doorstep not long after, looking like death warmed over but determined to help.

Graham stayed behind with Regina while Riley set out for Granny’s diner to find out if anyone had seen Henry, but Regina had a sinking suspicion that Henry wasn’t anywhere in town. He’d become more and more distant from her recently, and she had a horrible feeling she knew where he’d run off to.

Sure enough, when Riley called later, it was to tell them that no one had seen Henry since he’d been dropped off at school that morning. Even his teacher Mary Margaret hadn’t seen him and said that he hadn’t shown up to school at all.

Graham thanked Riley for her help and told her to go home and get some rest, but he stayed. He said he was hopeful that Henry would come home soon and that he wanted to make sure he was okay, but Regina suspected he was concerned for her and was staying to keep her company and maybe help take her mind off her missing son.

It was a nice gesture but nonetheless a waste. She couldn’t take her mind off the fact, and actually, it got worse the more hours went by, her mind conjuring up more and more horrific ideas of what had could have become of her son.

Finally, at around two in the morning as Graham was dozing in his seat, Regina heard a car door shut outside. She was out of her seat in a second and out the door in two more, and her heart physically ached with relief when she saw her son grudgingly walking up the path toward the front door despite  him refusing to meet her eyes.

She hurried to embrace him, and though he let her, he didn’t move to return the hug. Something inside of her that’d been stepped on quite a lot recently twinged painfully at the action.

“Henry,” she said, with more of a pleading note than she wished she had heard in her own voice. Henry was the only one who could ever bring out this vulnerable side, and he was repaying her ten years of raising him by grinding her heart into dust underneath his heel.

“I found my real mom!” he cried, and pulled himself from her arms and dashed into the house. She turned to watch him go and was relieved to see Graham trotting up the steps after him.

She had been right in her suspicions. He’d ran away to find his birth mother because he’d found out he’d been adopted. Regina wondered how he’d found out and just how long he’d known. But did it really matter? The important thing was that he had, and now she had to deal with the effects.

Robotically, Regina turned to the woman who’d returned Henry; she’d barely glanced at her before, but now she had a reason to. She had to keep this woman away from Henry; she couldn’t bear to lose her son to the woman who had birthed him and then given him up.

Regina froze as her eyes settled on the other woman’s face. She looked older, her hair was longer, and her clothes and posture were different, but there was no mistaking who she was looking at.

A ghost had returned her son.

“Hi,” the woman said with a small, uncomfortable smile. Regina opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but found that her voice was absent. “You’re Henry’s mom, right?”

Suddenly aware that she was still gaping like an idiot, Regina snapped her mouth shut and nodded. “Yes, and you are?”

“Emma Swan.”

Regina stifled the shudder that threatened to rip through her. She’d been so desperately hoping to be wrong, but those hopes had been brutally crushed in the cruelest of ways. She forced her expression to remain perfectly neutral as she said, “Well, Miss Swan, thank you for bringing my son home.”

The little helpless smile on Emma’s face widened slightly until it looked like an actual smile, and something in Regina’s chest twisted painfully at the sight of it. “You’re welcome, um.” Her expression turned sheepish, and she said, “Sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

The words prompted an ache in Regina, but she forced a smile and calmly replied, “Regina Mills.” Of course Emma wouldn’t remember her; she was just like everyone else, except she’d been inexplicably sent to somewhere other than Storybrooke, and there was the small fact that she had died twelve years ago.

“You’re welcome, Miss Mills.”

Graham appeared in the doorway at that moment, and he smiled at them. “He’s sulking, but he’s otherwise perfectly fine.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Thank you so much, Sheriff,” Regina said earnestly, and he nodded before taking his leave, doing the same to Emma as well as he passed.

As he started his car and drove away, Emma stuffed her hands in her pockets and rocked up on the balls of her feet. “I should get going as well.”

Everything in Regina screamed that she should stop her, but she just forced a smile and said, “I’m sorry that my son kept you out so late.”

“It really isn’t that big of a deal,” Emma said with a shrug. “He’s a nice kid. You’ve raised him well.” Regina couldn’t help but smile at the compliment, and Emma returned it, though hers was smaller.

Then, Emma nodded and turned, and Regina could only watch helplessly as she climbed into her car and drove away. It wasn’t the first time Emma had left her behind, but it somehow hurt just as much this time as it had before.

* * *

When she was younger, she had never gleaned any sort of pleasure from watching soldiers fight, despite how she’d seen others do so. She had found it barbaric and foolish, something only the bloodthirsty truly enjoyed. The years had changed her opinion slightly, but she still never watched purely for entertainment. She’d been forced to spend more than a few hours supervising her men as they sparred and had had personal lessons on how to defend herself and lead her own in battle, so she’d had to reluctantly alter her opinion somewhat.

Now, as she stood in a crowd of commoners as they cheered on their fellows in fighting, she was reminded of her younger self’s harsh judgment of their love of battles. The competitors didn’t seem to be holding back – in fact, the losers usually had to be dragged off the field – and the crowd only seemed to cheer louder with each subsequent match.

She wasn’t here for entertainment, though; she was here to scout prospective knights for her personal guard. So far she hadn’t seen anyone that she had deemed worthy of the position, but she was hopeful that the competitor she’d heard whispers about would show.

The whispers were the entire reason she was even watching the tournament. As she’d been traveling through the town, intending to head to the nearest seaport and scout for potential recruits among the sailors and pirates, they’d been running short on supplies and been forced to stop and restock. A pair of her guards in commoner’s clothing had entered the small town and returned with news that there was to be a sword-fighting tournament the next day and that the strongest warrior in the region was rumored to be attending.

Intrigued by the rumors, Regina had decided to stay to see how true they were, and with a simple spell to change her appearance and stop herself being recognized – because why would Queen Regina be watching the commoners fight? – she attended the tournament in the hopes of seeing the rumored swordsman.

So far, there had been no sight of the swordsman, but she was hopeful that he would appear soon. She had no doubt that she would know immediately when he did; the crowd would likely react with a great amount of enthusiasm at the sight of him.

A few more matches passed, Regina growing more and more impatient as they did so, but her patience was rewarded when a sudden hush fell over the crowd, only for them to roar loudly a few moments later. She craned her neck to see who had entered the ring, and she was intrigued to see that the entrant was shrouded in a dark green cloak, their face shadowed by the hood.

He waved a hand at the crowd, their yells doubling in volume at the motion, and he then turned to face his opponent, who had gone pale at the sight of the cloaked man. The match began, and in less than three seconds, Green had disarmed his opponent and was holding the poor man’s sword in his free hand. The crowd cheered at the victory, but Regina wasn’t impressed, as the man’s opponent had positively wet himself before the match had even begun.

Green returned for his second match after a while, and this time, his opponent wasn’t nervous. He looked confident, and he moved like he’d been trained with a sword his entire life. This opponent would not be as easily beaten.

At least, that was what she expected. Green, however, seemed to disagree. In no time, his opponent was sprawled in a heap in the dirt, and Green stood over him, victorious once more.

Indeed, that was how the entire tournament progressed. Every time Green was up, he easily bested his opponent with scarcely any effort. It was actually quite boring to watch.

Regina couldn’t deny that Green was skilled, though. Even opponents that Regina could tell had worked with a sword their entire lives were easily beaten, and in the end, Green was crowned the victor. The crowd was obviously thrilled by the results – and so was Regina to a certain extent – but Green’s expression was entirely hidden by his hood.

The crowd quickly dispersed after the tournament ended, but Regina lingered, waiting for Green to appear so she could speak with him. There was no denying he was skilled, but Regina was curious to see how he would match up against the best swordsmen she could find.

As the sun inched past noon, Regina finally spotted Green leaving the town, a bag slung over his shoulder and his hood still up. Did no one in town know his true identity?

Now curious to see Green’s face as well as his skill, Regina stayed back as Green took the well-trodden path out of town. It was a long walk, and Green definitely wasn’t in a hurry, but finally, he turned off the path toward a small farmhouse, Regina still following.

Green disappeared into the house, and once the door shut behind him, Regina dismissed the spell she had cast on herself, removing the faux appearance it produced. With her true face revealed, Regina lifted a hand and knocked on the door of the farmhouse.

There was the sound of shuffling from inside, and then the door swung open to reveal the face of a man more than twenty years Regina’s senior. He was frowning, but when he realized who was standing at his door, his expression turned to one of shock.

“Your Majesty!” he exclaimed breathlessly, gaping at her. She smirked minutely, amused at his – completely understandable – reaction, before he stepped aside and invited her inside.

The house was small, but the warm fire and smell of cooking food were welcoming, and Regina felt strangely at home in it. Sitting at the small, wooden table was a woman that looked to be the same age as the man who had answered the door, and beside her sat a younger woman, who was different from the other two in that she didn’t immediately give a sign of deference to Regina, who was surprised to find herself curious rather than angry at the blatant disrespect.

“Emma!” the older woman hissed, but Emma just scoffed and steadily met Regina’s inquisitive stare.

“I apologize on behalf of our daughter,” the man said, sidling behind his wife and setting his hands on the back of her chair. “She’s a bit,” he grimaced as he grasped for the correct word, “stubborn.”

Regina finally pulled her eyes from Emma’s to look at the man. “It is nothing to be concerned about,” she said, and the man visibly relaxed at her words. Next to him, Emma shifted with a frown, and as she did so, the edge of the green cloak she wore slipped over her shoulder.

Well, this was a pleasant surprise. Green wasn’t, as she had assumed, male, but was in fact the stubborn young woman currently studying her curiously. The revelation made Green – Emma – even more intriguing, and if it was possible, Regina was now even more determined to have Emma as one of her own.

“My name is James. This is my wife Snow, and my daughter Emma,” James said, and he was smiling proudly when Regina looked back at him. It was obvious he loved his family dearly; Regina almost felt bad for planning to steal away his daughter. “What can we do for you, Your Majesty?”

“I would like a word with your daughter, if you don’t mind,” Regina replied easily. James and Snow’s eyes widened in unison, but they barely glanced at each before nodding.

Emma looked slightly put out at not being asked directly, but she didn’t argue as she stood up and led the way outside.

The sun was just beginning to set as they stood outside the small farmhouse, and Regina wrapped her arms around herself as a cool breeze blew. She’d been used to having a fire and shelter and had forgotten how cold it got this time of the year.

“What do you want to talk with me about?” Emma asked as soon as she’d shut the door behind her.

Now that they were standing next to each other, Regina found that Emma was only slightly taller than she was, just enough that they would be equal height if Regina wasn’t wearing riding boots. Emma crossed her arms, looking expectantly at Regina, who mulled over her word choice for a moment before speaking.

“I wanted to extend an offer to become a member of my personal guard. I’m traveling the kingdoms and gathering the best swordsmen I can find, and I watched you in the tournament this afternoon and I believe that you are definitely good enough to win a position.”

Emma pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and chewed on it for a long minute while Regina waited for her response semi-patiently. She really wanted Emma to join on her own terms, but if she said that she wasn’t going to join, Regina was prepared to use magic. The fact that she was brought back memories she would rather forget and disgusted her, but there was something about this woman that intrigued her. She had to have her.

“What exactly would this job entail?” Emma finally asked, and Regina breathed an inward sigh of relief. She hadn’t immediately turned the offer down, although she didn’t sound anywhere near convinced yet.

“You would have to win a place on my guard first, but I have no doubts that you would easily secure a position. When you did, you would be required to live in the castle, but you would be allotted leave to visit your family should you desire it. And as part of my guard, you would of course defend me as well as lead my armies into battle should the need arise.”

There was a pause where Emma seemed to seriously consider her offer. She shifted her weight on her feet, gaze fixed on some point past Regina’s shoulder as she was lost in thought. Finally, after what seemed like hours, Emma sighed and spoke.

“I’m tempted by your offer, I promise you, but I couldn’t leave my parents here alone. My father was injured when he was younger, and they depend on me for a lot of the farm work.” She looked genuinely apologetic, which stopped Regina from immediately casting the spell on her.

Instead, she continued to try and convince her. She would much rather Emma join of her own volition rather than by force; she knew all too well what that felt like, and it was anything but good. “Your family would be well provided for if you join my guard,” she promised.

Emma shook her head though, much to Regina’s despair. “I really am sorry, but I just couldn’t leave them. They’re the only family I have.”

And Regina understood that, she really did. Had she been in Emma’s position, she never would have been able to leave her father. Her mother, however, would have been a different story.

The thought of her mother made what she was about to do even harder than it had been before, but Regina painted a smile on her face and pushed with her magic. It didn’t take much – Emma was so close to giving in – but every press felt like something was stabbing Regina in the chest. “Are you sure you won’t reconsider joining?” she prompted.

As she watched, Emma’s eyes went glassy for a brief moment before they cleared again, and she smiled brightly at Regina, which made Regina feel like her stomach was sinking down into her feet. “On second thought, I would be happy to.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Regina said, and she sincerely was. She just wished she hadn’t had to use magic for Emma to agree. “The competition will be held two moons from now, beginning on the night of the full moon, though you are welcome to arrive at any time. You will be welcomed whenever you decide to arrive, and you will be given the best lodging while you are there.”

“I’ll be there,” Emma assured her. “Thank you.”

Regina smiled at her, grateful that this one came a bit easier than the others had. “The honor is all mine, I assure you. And,” she added, a thought suddenly occurring to her, “if I might ask, what is your surname?”

“We don’t have one,” Emma told her, a bit hesitantly. “I’ve asked my parents before, but it must have been lost at some point. We have no idea what it was.”

Of course the best potential guard she’d found was the daughter of a farmer with a long-lost surname. It would be incredible if Emma were to come out on top in the competition and make a name for herself, and Regina was sure that she would be able to with her skill.

“No matter than,” Regina said, waving the issue away. “Let us tell your parents the good news.”

* * *

The last thing Emma remembered was swerving to avoid hitting a wolf that had been standing in the middle of the road. She remembered nothing after that, so she suspected she’d been knocked unconscious by something.

Now, though, she was sitting in a small jail cell with her only company a short, grumpy man who smelled strongly of alcohol. They’d both been sitting there for about fifteen minutes before they heard someone approaching and a woman appeared around the corner.

“How’s the hangover this time, Leroy?” she asked as she pulled a set of keys out of her jacket pocket and unlocked the door to Leroy’s cell.

“I’ve had worse,” Leroy grumbled as he stood up off his cot and exited the cell. “I’ll see you around, Riley.” And with that, he hobbled off out of the room, leaving Emma alone with the woman, Riley, who turned to her next.

“So you’re Emma Swan,” she said conversationally as she unlocked Emma’s cell. “I heard from Graham what happened. Your car is a tank.”

Emma gave a wan smile. Graham must be the sheriff she’d seen the night before. “It’s definitely something,” she replied, wincing as the door squealed loudly in protest as it was opened. “What happened?”

“You swerved and hit the town sign. The impact must have knocked you unconscious; we thought you might have been drunk so we brought you here. How are you feeling?”

“Fine, actually.” Aside from the dull ache in her chest that morning that damp weather always brought. “And I wasn’t drunk. There was a wolf.”

Riley looked at her for a moment, then gave Emma a smile that clearly meant she didn’t believe her story. Before Emma could say anything to try and convince her, Riley handed her another set of keys, which Emma recognized as her own. Whatever, why she’d crashed wasn’t important. She accepted the keys with a mumble of thanks, but just as she turned to leave, Regina appeared, looking upset. When she saw Emma, she seemed to freeze, but then the moment passed and Emma wondered if she’d imagined the momentary halt.

“Henry’s missing again,” Regina said to Riley, who frowned. “Miss Blanchard called me to ask about him, and she told me that he isn’t there again.”

Had he headed back to Boston to try and find her again? The kid was stubborn, Emma had to admit. He really wanted her to stay in Storybrooke, but she hadn’t been able to ever get the reason why out of him the night before. The idea of her staying here was laughable to Emma, but the least she could do was help find him again before she left.

“I should be able to find him,” she offered, and both Regina and Riley turned to her in surprise. “Do you have any idea where he would go? To a friend’s or something?” Best to start local before they tried to track him down across states.

Regina shook her head. “He doesn’t have many friends,” she admitted quietly. “But he might have tried to find you again.”

“Speaking of which, how the hell did he get all the way to Boston?”

“I have no idea,” Regina said. “He doesn’t have enough money for a bus ticket that far.”

“A credit card?”

“He’s ten,” Regina deadpanned, with an expression like she thought Emma was mentally handicapped, but Emma shook her head.

“No, not his. Someone else’s.”

/

After finding that she still had all of her own credit cards, Regina deduced that one of the few people Henry could have taken a card from was his teacher, and so Emma accompanied her to Henry’s school to check.

Class was just letting out for recess when they arrived, and while Regina easily pushed her way through the swarm of kids, Emma had a little more difficulty. By the time she finally caught up to Regina, she was already speaking to a woman Emma assumed was Henry’s teacher.

The teacher was just pulling out her wallet when Emma entered the room, and from her expression once she had, they’d found who Henry had burgled. “I’m sorry,” she said sincerely to Regina, who for her part didn’t look upset, just exasperated. “I should never have given him that book.”

“It’s too late now, dear,” Regina said quietly, and Emma crossed her arms over her chest and turned to look around at the kids’ drawings hung up on the walls, feeling more than a bit uncomfortable and rather like she was encroaching on a private conversation. “Do you know where he may have gone?”

Mary Margaret shook her head, then stopped and looked at Regina with a thoughtful expression. “No, I think I might. You know that old playground near the ocean, the one with the castle?” Regina nodded. “He likes to go out there sometimes. I’ve seen him there on the way home.”

“Thank you,” Regina said and turned to leave.

“Who are you?” Mary Margaret asked suddenly, and Emma started when she realized that the question was addressed to her.

“I’m Emma Swan, a, um,” she glanced sideways at Regina, wondering how much to say, “friend.”

Mary Margaret gave her a look like she didn’t believe her, but Emma was grateful when she didn’t press. She heard Regina’s heels clack against the floor as she left; Emma gave Mary Margaret a quick smile and turned to catch up with Regina.

Now that Regina knew where her son had gone, Emma expected to be pointed toward the closest road out of Storybrooke, but when she let the door to the school shut behind her, the mayor was hovering near her car with her hands in the pockets of her coat and a torn expression on her face.

Emma paused and glanced at her own car. Emotions had never been something she’d been good at dealing with, and she really had no business being here any longer than she already had, but something about the sudden blatant emotion on Regina’s face made her stomach twist uncomfortably at the idea of running – something she’d been doing for well over fifteen years, mind you.

She reached up and ran a hand through her hair, cursing herself for deciding to go through with what was likely the worst idea she’d had in ten years. Her feet carried her toward Regina, however, despite her reluctance, and she uncomfortably cleared her throat.

“He doesn’t want to talk to me,” Regina said quietly without meeting Emma’s eyes, and for someone who had been full of confidence since Emma had met her, she sounded completely at a lost now. Emma stayed silent, not only because she didn’t know what to say, but because she had the feeling that if she interrupted, Regina might not say another word to her.

“Could you go and get him?” Emma’s eyebrows rose nearly to her hairline in surprise. “I can give you directions, so would you? He might not even talk to me if I went.”

The fact that Henry had obviously treated his mother so horribly that she felt she couldn’t even speak with him made Emma want to smack the kid so hard his teeth rattled and ask him if he knew how good he had it. She would have killed to have a mother like Regina when she was younger; she obviously loved Henry very much, but he was repaying her years of love by tracking down his real mother and trying to convince her to stay in the town with him.

This was a bad idea. She should just turn around and leave, drive as far away as she could and forget that this town and Henry existed. She’d done it plenty of times before; it would be easy to do it again.

But she found herself nodding and telling Regina she would go and talk to Henry, and the look of relief on Regina’s face – for the few moments it was there, at least – was enough to make her feel that maybe running wasn’t the answer this time.

/

It was easy enough to find the playground Mary Margaret had spoken of. She had been correct in assuming that Henry would be there; Emma could see him sitting on the edge of the old, water-damaged castle as she pulled onto the small path next to it.

Henry looked up at the sound of the car, and he smiled at her as she stepped out, pulling her jacket tighter around her as she walked over to him. She’d lived in Boston for months, but Massachusetts had nothing on Maine, never mind a town on the coast. The wind blowing off the ocean was absolutely freezing, and it cut through her jacket as if she wasn’t wearing it at all.

“Hey, kid,” she said once she was in earshot, and Henry grinned at her like she’d hung the sun in the sky. She grimaced at the sight of it and the knowledge of what she so desperately needed to talk with him about. “Can I sit?”

He nodded and wriggled over a few inches until she could hop up onto the wood next to him. Once she’d sat, he shifted so he was facing her, still beaming widely. “How’d you find me?” he asked, smiling in a way that made her wonder if he thought she pulled off a miracle in finding him.

She sighed and turned to face him as well and leaned back against a wooden pillar, legs folded up underneath her. It was still cold as hell, but the wood of the playground seemed to block some of it. “Your mom,” she answered simply, and Henry’s smile quickly disappeared. “You can’t keep running like this, kid. She’s really worried about you.”

Henry ducked his head and picked at a piece of splintered wood, body hunched like he was physically trying to protect himself from the conversation. “But I couldn’t let you leave,” he said petulantly, and Emma resisted the urge to sigh.

“Why do you keep saying that?” she shot back, sighing at herself when it came out much angrier than she had intended for it to; Henry curled tighter in on himself. “Sorry,” she mumbled quietly, the words sounding odd in her mouth.

She sat up and rubbed at her face, trying to reign in her frustration. “Listen,” she finally said. “I don’t know my parents. I was left on the side of the road, and I spent the next eight years being shunted from home to home until I got to that age where no one wants you anymore. You have _no_ idea how good you have it. You have a _home_ , and a mother who loves you despite what you think. _I_ never had that, not since a family I had when I was three that gave me up when they learned they were having _their own_ daughter. So be grateful, kid, because you’ve got it a hell of a lot better than a lot of us _ever_ did.”

Henry was silent for a long time, his hands twisting together in his lap, but Emma couldn’t bring herself to feel bad for snapping at him. Honestly, he seemed to have had it coming for a while now.

“I’m not trying to sound superior, but I spent my entire life until I turned fifteen wanting exactly what you have, and I hate the fact that you’re taking it for granted.”

Still Henry didn’t respond, but when he looked up, his eyes were tinged red. “But I have _you_!” he cried, and something in Emma’s chest ached at the words. “You’re my mom _and_ the Savior!”

“Savior?” Emma repeated, frowning. “Kid, I’m no one’s savior, believe me.”

Henry shook his head fiercely and twisted to grab his backpack. She watched in confusion as he unzipped it and pulled out an oversized book and flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for.

He then shoved the book at her, and she looked down at the page he’d opened it to. For a moment, she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be looking at, but she realized exactly what Henry was trying to show her just as his finger landed on the page right over the picture.

“It’s you,” he said eagerly, poking the picture with his finger a few times for emphasis, and while she did have to agree that the illustration did resemble her, there was no way it was actually her.

“I can see how you would think that,” she replied, shutting the book with a snap and ignoring Henry’s immediate frown. “But that’s not me. Whoever this picture was modeled after just happens to sort of look like me.”

Henry’s petulant frown deepened, but then he sighed and shook his head and the corners of his lips turned up again slightly. “That’s because all your memories have been taken away,” he said matter-of-factly, punctuating his words with a firm nod. “See, when the Evil Queen cast the curse to bring everyone here, all of their memories were replaced with fake ones so that they wouldn’t question things.”

“And the Evil Queen,” Emma hedged, “you think that’s your mom?”

Henry nodded again. “She cast the curse because she was unhappy, so the only way to break it is with True Love’s kiss.”

“You mean there’s a different way to break curses?”

“Sometimes, but True Love can overcome anything.”

He sounded so sure of what he was saying that Emma could barely bring herself to deny it. She sighed and pushed a hand through her hair. “There’s no such thing as True Love in real life, kid,” she said hesitantly. “Those stories are just that: stories. Your mom is just a woman who loves you and wants what’s best for you. She’s not the Evil Queen.”

Henry chewed on his bottom lip for a moment. “That’s okay,” he said. “The hero never believes at first, because otherwise it wouldn’t be too good of a story. You’ll believe, though, and then the curse will break!”

The pieces of this screwed up puzzle seemed to click together. “Wait a second. If your mom’s the Evil Queen and I’m the Savior, that means that you think that me and your mom–” She made a hand motion, but Henry seemed to get her point and nodded with a blinding grin.

An odd feeling settled in the pit of Emma’s stomach, and it felt like she was about to be sick. She would have been okay with Henry believing that she would save the town, but this wasn’t what she hadn’t signed up for.

She shook her head and wondered if dunking her head in the ocean would stop her thoughts from the marathon they had begun running. She was already freezing her ass off, though, so she quickly vetoed that plan.

Henry was still beaming, and she couldn’t take looking at his expression any longer. She slid to the ground and turned back to him, trying to force a smile that didn’t look like she’d just been vomited on by some drunkard at a bar – something she’d experienced far more times than she’d like to admit.

“C’mon. I promised to take you home; your mom’s probably worried sick about you.” Henry pouted but hopped off the castle and led the way to her car.

He had already shut the door behind him by the time she opened the driver’s door and slid in, and she frowned at the sight of the book of fairy tales sitting on his lap. Some part of her wanted to ask to see it, to read it herself for no reason other than pure curiosity, but a bigger part of her wanted to set it on fire, and she couldn’t figure out a reason for such an intense reaction other than the fact that the very sight of it set her on edge.

She forced herself to look away and start the car and put it in gear, and she became aware as she did that Henry was watching her carefully. She ignored that too.

Luckily, she remembered the road to Henry’s house so she didn’t have to ask, and when she stopped the car in front of it, he finally looked away from her to turn a frown on the house.

“Do I really have to go?” he asked, though he seemed to already know the answer, and she wasn’t going to disappoint.

He was reluctantly climbing out of the car by the time she’d rounded the front and was waiting on him, and to her relief, the book was nowhere to be seen. She might’ve had to resist the urge to fling it far into the nearby woods.

The sound of the front door opening announced Regina’s presence, but just like he had the night before, Henry brushed her off and quickly vanished into the house, though he made sure to spare Emma a smile before he did.

When the door had shut behind him, Regina turned to Emma, who felt like she’d run a marathon now that he wasn’t there scrutinizing her anymore. “Thank you,” Regina said, and Emma gave her a small smile. “Thank you for bringing him back despite him not wanting to, I’m sure.”

“Maybe it’s just a phase or something,” Emma offered weakly with a shrug, then sighed at how completely uninformed she sounded. She didn’t know anything about kids. “He doesn’t understand how good his life is, how bad it could be.”

Regina’s expression was unreadable when Emma looked back at her, and Emma offered her an apologetic smile. She didn’t want to dump her baggage on this woman who so obviously already had more than enough on her plate to deal with.

“I should get going,” she said and began stepping back toward her car. “I’m sorry to intrude on your life, but you don’t have to worry about it any longer. If he does manage to get back to Boston, I won’t be there.”

“You’re leaving?” Regina asked suddenly, with an inflection in her voice that Emma couldn’t quite place. “Because of Henry?”

“Not entirely. I move around a lot, and him finding me is just a reason to move on. I won’t bother you anymore from now on, promise.” She stepped around the car to the driver’s side and turned to face Regina again, “Thank you for taking care of him. I’m really glad someone like you adopted him.”

She nodded and opened the car door, eager to get away. Speaking about her life wasn’t something she normally did, and it was more than a bit uncomfortable for her.

“Wait!”

Emma paused and looked up, surprised to see Regina standing on the other side of her car. She set her arms on the roof and waited to see what Regina wanted.

“Maybe you could stay?” Regina began hesitantly, and Emma couldn’t help the shocked expression she felt cross her face. “Just for a few days, maybe, in case Henry tries to run away again?”

“I–” Emma mouthed blankly for a minute before she realized and shut her mouth and swallowed as her brain started again. It should have been easy, to just say no and leave, but that feeling curled in the pit of her stomach again and she found that the word no suddenly didn’t exist anymore.

“Okay,” she found herself saying, and for the second time that day, Regina looked relieved, though Emma was completely confused as to why. If anything, Regina should want her gone as fast as she could leave, but instead she was asking her to stay.

Regina’s expression returned to its normal impassiveness, but the memory of her relief lingered in Emma’s mind. “Granny’s Bed and Breakfast is on Main Street,” she answered Emma’s silent question.

“Thank you.”

She slid into her car and started back toward Main Street, and when she glanced in the rearview mirror, she saw Regina watching her go with that same unreadable expression.


	2. Chapter 2

Two moons later, Regina stood at the front of the throne room and looked out at the thirteen men and women she had chosen to compete for her personal guard. Among them were farmers, merchants, bounty hunters, two sailors, a pirate, and a former Chin warrior. They were a motley crew at first glance, but they were the best in the kingdom.

One was still missing, however, and it was that one that Regina was most worried about. Most of the potentials had arrived within the last five days, but Emma had still yet to show, much to Regina’s progressively increasing worry. Maybe her spell had broken and Emma had decided not to compete.

She was almost ready to give up when the doors to the throne room creaked open, and Regina had to bite her tongue to stifle a relieved sigh.

A few of the regular guards were accompanying Emma, but Regina quickly waved them away with a nod of greeting to Emma, who smiled slightly and joined the other potentials, lingering at the very back.

“Now that everyone is here,” Regina addressed them all, noting Emma’s sheepish expression and making a mental note to ask her why she was late when she had the opportunity, “it is time to begin. You all know why you are here, so let’s get started. A chart has been created for your matches. The first will be held in an hour. I wish you all luck, and may the best win.”

The recruits immediately began talking save for a few, who Regina wasn’t surprised didn’t join in on the conversations. The wolfman and Chin warrior were givens, but she also wasn’t surprised to see that Emma was hanging back and trying not to attract too much attention to herself.

She wondered if Emma was uneasy at being so far from home, preparing to face people who were just as adept at fighting as she was. When Emma caught her watching her, though, she gave a small smirk before turning to watch her competition mingle, and Regina realized that there was more to this woman than just excellent sword skills.

/

Emma’s first match was against the son of a prolific merchant who was an excellent swordsman despite being prone to bouts of misplaced confidence. He’d stopped boasting when he’d been hanged from a tree branch with no idea how he’d gotten up there, but Regina had been impressed by his skills enough to invite him.

He had obviously underestimated Emma, whether because of her shabby appearance or because she was a woman. Or quite possibly, both.

He sneered at Emma as soon as she vaulted over the edge of the training ring, but Emma didn’t say a word, just accepted the blunted sword from one of the supervising guards and fell into a fighting stance.

Not five minutes later, she was declared the victor, her opponent nursing a bloody nose and the onlookers deadly silent. No one underestimated her after that.

/

Killian Jones won his invitation by flat-out punching a sailor unconscious that had been leering at Regina. His crewmates had then swarmed Killian in retaliation, and Regina had watched in pleasant surprise as Killian had dodged and punched and kicked like it was second nature. When he’d been standing over the entire crew’s unconscious bodies, barely winded, Regina had immediately extended him an invitation, which he had gleefully accepted with a grin so wide it had spanned the entirety of his face.

He more than proved his worth in the tournament, effectively erasing any doubts that Regina had about him. To everyone’s surprise, he had forgone a weapon in favor of his fists, but it soon became obvious that he should be underestimated no more than Emma. By the time he claimed his position on the guard, there was a pile of unconscious potentials left in his wake and several men who were relieved they hadn’t had to face him.

Another recruit Regina had favored was a woodcutter named Pinocchio. Initially, Regina hadn’t been too impressed by him, but he’d been friendly when they’d stopped near his home for a night and she had liked him enough to see what he could do.

So he’d smiled at her and shot an arrow at a pear so far away that Regina had barely been able to see it. She’d extended him an invitation when she’d seen how accurate his shot was, and he had smiled again and offered her and her men dinner.

The two oddest recruits that Regina had found both won positions as well. One was a bounty hunter named Remus who introduced the wolf at his side as his brother, Romulus. He had been as kind as Pinocchio and nearly as skilled with a bow as well as adept with a sword and at tracking.

The other was the former Chin warrior, Mulan. She’d saved Regina’s guards from an attack by a pair of bears and then turned to leave without a word, but Regina had stopped her and extended an invitation, biting her tongue to stop from remarking how odd it was to see a Chin in the Enchanted Kingdom. Obviously the woman had some tragic past, and she didn’t want to press and risk losing a potential guard.

Mulan had only spoken once Regina had explained the offer in its entirety, and she had accepted without hesitation, promising to be there on the assigned day before turning and walking off without another word. Regina found her incredibly intriguing, doubly so when she bested her opponents in the tournament with as much ease as Killian and Emma had.

Pinocchio and Remus, however, had had a bit more trouble. Both had come incredibly close to losing a few times, but Pinocchio’s quick thinking and Remus’ excellent instincts had saved them every time. Regina was more than happy to accept them into her guard.

She knew the other rulers must think her mad, especially when word eventually spread that her personal guard was comprised of a former pirate captain, a woodcutter, a bounty hunter with a wolf as a brother, a former Chin warrior, and a farmer.

Let them underestimate her; they would see just how wrong they were to do so.

/

The knighting ceremony was attended by almost every person in the town surrounding the castle, all of them clamoring to see for themselves the five chosen to protect the queen. Regina heard the whispers when they spotted them, whether because of Mulan’s obvious foreign origin, Killian’s shameless flirting with anyone within a ten foot radius of him, Remus observing as Pinocchio warily interacted with Romulus, or the shabbiness of most of their clothes.

Emma, however, seemed to have found some way to avoid the crowd’s scrutiny as she lingered on the edge of the courtyard; Regina had heard more quite a few whispers asking where the fifth victor was and even a few wondering if it was the wolf.

Like she had in the tournament, Emma had managed to have almost everyone underestimate her with barely any effort. It was a very interesting trick, one that Regina regretted would likely fail to work after the rest of the realm learned who she was. But for now, Regina gleaned amusement from watching Emma mingle with the townspeople, effortlessly charming them while they still had no idea of her identity.

At the top of the hour, one of her commanders announced the beginning of the ceremony, and Regina hid a smirk at the expressions of the small group Emma had been talking to when she excused herself and turned and headed for her spot beside Pinocchio. As she walked away, the group stared after her and muttered amongst themselves.

When she had left the crowd that had begun swarming around the stairs and took her place, Regina caught her eye and smirked, and Emma briefly returned it before she forced her expression neutral again.

It was a clever plan, Regina thought. By speaking with the townspeople as one of them, they had passed judgment on her solely from that interaction. If the first glimpse of her they had had was her with the rest of the new guard, they would have sneered and passed judgment without ever speaking a word to her, simply because she was like them but had been chosen to serve the queen. Emma was clearly as intelligent as she was skilled with a sword, which made Regina even more pleased that she had this woman as one of her guard.

When everyone had fallen still in anticipation of the ceremony, Regina spoke.

/

Emma had never been one to stay still for long, so she wasn’t surprised that she began feeling restless barely any time into Regina’s well-rehearsed speech. She tried to pay attention, she really did, but listening to someone talk for an extended period of time wasn’t her idea of entertaining – not even when the speaker was someone like Queen Regina.

She forced herself to not move and tried to focus on Regina’s words, but within a minute, she was distracted again, eyes fixed on a point past her queen’s shoulder, lost in thought. She wondered when she would be able to send a message to her parents informing them that she’d won a position on Regina’s guard or if she would be allowed to tell them personally. Regina _had_ said that she would have leave to visit them.

The sound of Pinocchio subtly clearing his throat brought Emma back to the present, and she glanced down the line to see that Regina had approached Killian. The real ceremony had finally begun; just a few more minutes and this would all be over.

After Killian, Regina addressed Mulan, who had turned down the offer of being given a new surname in the ceremony. She’d said that she had a surname, but until she was worthy of it again, she was simply Mulan. Emma respected her decision, even if she didn’t share the same sentiments, though she knew even without the entire story that their situations were entirely different.

When Regina had approached her with the offer of a surname, she had been more than happy to accept. In fact, she was eager to see what had been chosen for her.

Remus and Pinocchio were knighted, and then it was finally Emma’s turn. As Regina stopped in front of her, she forced herself to remain perfectly still and bowed her head to her queen as she spoke. The binding words barely registered to her, but she retained enough cognitive ability to answer with a resounding “Yes” when prompted.

“Then I welcome you to my personal guard, Knight Emma Swan.”

Emma felt like she would vibrate out of her skin in excitement; she was biting down on her tongue in an attempt not to grin like an idiot. She lifted her head and met Regina’s eyes as her queen held out a sheathed sword to her.

She took it from her, trembling slightly with excitement because this was actually happening, and she couldn’t help but smile at the sight of the swan engraved on the sheath as she buckled it around her waist.

Regina stepped back to the center of the platform and said something else, but Emma didn’t even hear her. She’d done it! She’d earned a spot on the queen’s personal guard and had been named a knight and given a surname; she couldn’t wait to tell her parents!

As the crowd began cheering their approval, Emma felt a tingling in the tips of her fingers. If she’d ever had any doubts about this position, it was too late to back out now. She was bound to Queen Regina for life because of this ceremony, as were the others.

The grin she’d been holding back finally broke through, and when she caught Regina’s eye, the queen gave her a small smile in response.

* * *

Whatever Emma had said to Henry had obviously affected him in some way, Regina noticed, although it unfortunately wasn’t enough to sway him entirely in her favor. He hadn’t run away again, which Regina was grateful for.

She could see Emma in him now when she watched him, which more than proved that Henry wasn’t a product of the curse. Aside from the fact that the curse had brought her back from the dead, Emma had also been transported to somewhere outside of Storybrooke. They’d been in Storybrooke for almost eleven years, which worked out almost perfectly with Henry’s age. Henry hadn’t been, as she’d initially expected, a product of the curse, but was in fact Emma’s actual biological child.

The fact that he was made her want to drown herself in a large glass of apple cider, but she kept the urge at bay with the knowledge that Emma didn’t remember anything of her life in the Enchanted Forest, didn’t remember anything of her, which brought her back to the alcohol again.

If this was the curse’s idea of a happy ending, she would beg to disagree. Also, if she ever had the misfortune of meeting Henry’s father, she would not be held responsible for her actions. She might very well strangle the man on principle.

But when Henry disappeared again a week after Emma came to town, she was more than glad that she had asked Emma to stay for a while, especially when she found out where he’d run off to this time from Dr. Hopper. Apparently Emma had shut him down on his fairytale theory and he’d come to his therapy session upset, and despite Archie’s attempts at trying to calm him, he’d run off to the mines, determined to prove his point.

When Regina arrived at the entrance to the mines, Emma wasn’t far behind. She’d called the sheriff’s station on the way over as well, and Riley and Graham were already there, armed with flashlights and more rope than Regina was aware the town owned.

“Hand me some of that rope, Riley?” Emma asked after she had hurried over to the entrance to the mines. Riley looked surprised to see her but quickly grabbed some rope and tossed it to Emma, who tied one end of it around her belt.

Regina went to join them, but Graham gave her a look and held the rope away from her. “Not a chance, Madam Mayor.”

“He’s my son!” she snapped, and it was a testament to how long they’d known each other that Graham didn’t even flinch.

“I know that,” he said calmly, absently tossing Emma a flashlight. “And no offense, but you spend your days behind a desk. We can handle this.”

Regina let out an angry breath but conceded his point. She hadn’t even ridden a horse in the eleven years they’d been here – they reminded her too much of the other realm.

Graham took her silence as a victory and clipped a spare flashlight to his belt before turning and jogging into the mines. Before she followed him, Riley paused to give her a sympathetic smile, and then she was gone as well.

“It’s my fault,” Emma muttered, head ducked and turning the flashlight over and over in her hands. “If I hadn’t pissed him off, he wouldn’t be down there, and I wouldn’t be out of my mind with worry over him, the little bastard.”

Normally, Regina would have been upset at the choice of descriptors for her son, but at the moment, she could definitely sympathize with Emma’s anger.

“Just get him back,” Regina said, and Emma lifted her head just enough to meet her eyes. “It doesn’t matter. Just bring him back safe. That’s what’s important.”

For a long minute, Emma simply looked at her, her knuckles slowly turning white from her grip on the flashlight. Then, without breaking eye contact, she turned to look at Regina, straightened, curled her free right hand into a fist, and thumped it over her heart.

Regina hadn’t seen the salute in eleven years, and the sight of it now accompanied with the fact that her son was lost somewhere in the mines was almost enough to break her. Despite all the planted memories and the eleven years separated, the old Emma, _her_ Emma, was still in there.

For a while, Emma stood in the salute before she dropped it without a word and turned and disappeared into the mines.

It was only when she heard the sound of someone approaching that Regina realized that she’d been standing, staring off into the mine entrance blankly, for several minutes. She turned to see Ruby running in her direction, worry written clearly across her face.

“He’s in there?” Ruby asked as she skidded to a halt in front of Regina, jerking her head toward the mine entrance. Regina nodded absently, and Ruby quickly tied a rope off on herself and ran inside.

News of Henry’s trip into the mines must have spread to the rest of the town because they began arriving not long after Ruby had disappeared into the mines as well, and Regina was grateful for something to do.

/

It wasn’t until she was already several hundred meters into the mines that Ruby realized that she should have grabbed a flashlight before she went running into the mines. She had her phone, but the light it provided was negligible. Honestly, she could see just as well with it as she could without it.

Her eyes had luckily adjusted quickly to the darkness, and she could just make out the footprints in the dirt where the paths forked. Henry obviously wasn’t wearing boots like Riley and Graham – and Emma if she had to guess who the third set of tracks belonged to – so it was easy to find which path he had taken.

The air grew thicker the farther she progressed into the mine; after the fifth split in the path, Ruby had to open her mouth to be able to get enough oxygen, as well as reluctantly slow her pace.

With her mouth open, she could taste the air, and it was unfortunately just as stale as it smelled. She scowled but kept walking, hoping as she did that she wouldn’t run out of rope before Henry was found. The last thing she wanted was to be lost down here with this horrible air.

She paused at the next split and crouched to see if she could find any footsteps. After quite a bit of squinting and some not-help from her phone, she couldn’t find any. She was just about to turn around and head back to the last split when a strange smell registered to her.

The scent seemed familiar, and she frowned and sniffed but couldn’t find it again. However, she opened her mouth to take a breath and it hit her again. She tilted her head toward the right tunnel and took a deep breath.

She glanced back over her shoulder and considered backtracking. The scent drifted around her again when she breathed, and she set off down the right tunnel, aware that she would likely have to retrace her steps.

Her footsteps echoed as she felt her way down the tunnel, and she was so distracted by making sure she didn’t lose the wall that it took her a minute to realize that she could hear another set of footsteps as well.

“Henry!” she called, and the footsteps stopped before they started up again, faster this time, until a small body crashed into her and almost knocked her on her ass. “Hey!”

“Ruby!” Henry cried, and in the light of his flashlight, she could see him grinning up at her. “Did you come down here to help?”

She shook her head. “No. Everyone’s worried about you. Emma, Graham, and Riley are all down here looking for you. You know this place isn’t safe; there was a cave-in just last month.”

“I know,” Henry said with a pout.

“I’m not your mom, Henry, and I’m definitely not a role model child, but don’t worry your mom like that. Or Emma. Now, c’mon, I can’t breathe down here.”

Henry frowned at her but allowed her to guide him back toward the mine entrance.

/

Ruby’s way of telling everyone that she’d found Henry was to tug on the ropes attached to their belts. At least, that’s what she said she’d done; to Emma, it felt like Ruby had been trying to drag her back out of the mines with how much strength she’d put behind her ‘tug’. She’d been grateful for her help, though, and was glad they’d found Henry without too much of a fuss.

Her eyes took a minute to adjust to sunlight again when she exited the mines, but she could see that Regina had Henry in a tight hug, and he definitely didn’t look too thrilled about it. He looked over at her, and his frown deepened but she was too relieved that he’d been found safe to be pissed at him right now.

“Thank you,” Regina was saying to Ruby when she came within earshot, and Ruby’s eyes widened in surprise. It seemed she wasn’t the only one who thought the mayor apologizing was severely out of character, but Ruby recovered quickly and smiled at Regina.

“You’re welcome, Madam Mayor. Maybe you should think about putting him on a leash or something.”

Henry’s frown deepened until he was scowling, but if Regina noticed, she didn’t act like she had. “I wouldn’t go that far, but a grounding definitely wouldn’t be out of the question.” She pointedly glanced down at her son, who looked on the verge of a temper tantrum now.

“Hey, Emma,” a voice said behind her, and she turned to see Graham untying the rope from around his belt. He smiled at her. “I guess you’re going to be staying for a while since you’re still here?”

His action had reminded her of the rope still tied off on herself, and she replied as she untied it, “For a little while, at least. Regina asked me to stay.”

Graham paused with the rope held limply in his hand, and he looked rather shocked. “The mayor wants you to stay?” he asked incredulously, and she shrugged because honestly, she had no idea why Regina had asked her either. “Well, I wanted to tell you that if you decided to stay for longer than a week, we’d be more than happy for your help at the sheriff’s office. The most exciting thing we usually do is rescue cats from trees, but you’re not likely to find a position somewhere else.”

“Thanks,” Emma said hesitantly, and Graham smiled widely at her. “If Henry keeps running away, I might very well take you up on that offer.”

“As long as you think about it.”

* * *

In the moon that followed the knighting ceremony, Emma found that living in a castle was very different than the farm she’d lived on for her entire life. For one, it was absolutely massive, and she spent most of her first day walking the entire castle and mentally mapping it until she was sure she wouldn’t get lost if she needed to get somewhere in a hurry.

She visited her parents the week after the ceremony on the horse that had been given to her for her position, which she hadn’t hesitated to name Rusty after the dog she’d had as a child. Her parents had of course been overjoyed at the news and then pestered her with questions about the castle and her fellow guards, and despite planning on returning to the castle that night, it was the next morning by the time she could get away.

The peace lasted for an entire moon before Killian shattered it with the question of which of them was the leader of Queen Regina’s guard. He was, of course, asking it with the hopes that they would say him, but when no one responded, he frowned and snapped, “Well?”

“No one’s the leader,” Pinocchio said calmly. “The tournament was only for choosing the guards. We’re all equals.”

“We can solve this easily,” Killian said, standing up and cracking his knuckles. “We can fight each other right now. Then we’ll know who the leader is.”

Pinocchio scoffed and stood as well so he and Killian were only a few inches from each other. “What, you think you’re going to win? I could beat you easily.”

“Oh, yeah, wood boy,” Hook sneered. “You honestly think you can beat me when you barely scraped through the tournament?”

“I think I could distract and beat you with a mirror.”

Everything was still for a few seconds; Killian swung first. The punch connected with a wet, crunching sound, and Pinocchio stumbled back a few paces, a hand clutching his nose, before launching himself back at Killian and knocking him to the ground.

The two of them rolled over and over on the ground, fists flying as they did, but as Emma moved to break them apart, Remus stepped in front of her and yanked Killian off Pinocchio with little effort.

“This is foolish,” he snapped, and Hook responded by slamming the toe of his boot into Remus’s knee. Remus howled in pain and crushed Killian against the nearby wall in response, teeth bared in a snarl. In that moment, he looked more like the wolves he called family than human, and there was a small light of fear in Killian’s eyes as he realized what beast he’d just provoked.

Emma hurried forward just as Remus made to wrap his fingers around Killian’s windpipe and tried to shove Remus off of him. Remus didn’t budge, however, and turned on Emma with that same feral look in his eyes.

He dropped Killian and turned to face Emma and threw a punch so fast she couldn’t react in time to move. His fist slammed into her jaw and sent her stumbling back, but she stifled the urge to fight back. That would accomplish nothing except making Remus even angrier at her.

Remus advanced on her with a snarl, but before he could attack again, the door burst open, and a sudden chill permeated the room. Emma suddenly found herself stuck to the spot and not out of fear; she was actually completely frozen in place.

“ _What_ is going on in here?” Regina yelled, and if Emma could have flinched at the tone, she would have. Regina glared around at them all save Mulan, who was still sitting at the table watching them solemnly. Apparently, she had decided to not interfere, something that Emma was now beginning to wish she’d done as well.

As everyone else was frozen and therefore unable to respond, Mulan cleared her throat and explained, “Killian goaded Pinocchio into a fight and then brought Remus into it. Emma was trying to stop Remus from breaking all of Killian’s bones.”

Regina turned back to them, and though she still looked angry, Emma felt that it wasn’t directed at her so much this time. Regina took a deep breath before looking at them each for a few seconds with an iciness Emma never wanted to see directed at her again, then said, “All four of you will be responsible for caring for the horses for the next moon, including mucking the stalls, and if I hear that one of you is slacking, you will regret it.”

And with that, she turned and swept from the room, and Emma fell forward as she was released from the queen’s hold. In front of her, Remus swayed on his feet but managed to stay standing.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, holding a hand out for her. She took it without hesitation and allowed him to help her to her feet, and he kept his eyes downcast, looking ashamed of himself. “I could explain the situation to Queen Regina and take your duties for you if you’d like?”

The fact that he’d even offered was enough of a reason to forgive him, so Emma smiled at him and shook her head. “No, that’s okay. I’m used to it; it won’t be a problem for me.”

“Easy for the farmer to say,” Killian grumbled from where he was dusting himself off, lips twisted angrily.

Emma was in front of him in two steps, her hands fisted in the collar of his tunic and glaring at him, and he suddenly looked less aggravated. “If you don’t _shut up_ , I’ll make sure you have three moons of mucking out stalls _and_ make a necklace out of your damn teeth!”

She’d lifted Killian off his feet as she’d been speaking, and as his feet dangled a good four inches off the ground, Killian nodded shakily. She released him and made sure to step on his toes as she turned and stalked from the room.

/

It was a few days before she could work up the courage to face Regina, who had been sweeping about the castle in a foul mood ever since the incident. Honestly, even as she stood in front of the door to Regina’s office, she was considering chickening out; the thought of facing Regina after making her so angry was terrifying enough to make her want to turn tail and flee.

But she steeled herself and lifted a hand and knocked, and a few seconds later heard Regina allow her entrance. Regina was at her desk when she opened the door, and she only spared Emma a brief glance as she shut the door behind her.

“My queen.” Emma sank to a knee on the floor and ducked her head, and while it might have been a bit much normally, she hated being on her queen’s bad side. “I wanted to apologize for my behavior the other day as well as that of my fellow knights.”

She didn’t lift her head in the silence that followed and was relieved when she heard Regina say, “Proceed.”

“None of us should have risen to Killian’s bait,” she said, having already planned what she wanted to say out in her head. She wasn’t the best when it came to words, but she had tried to be for this. “I should have found some other way to stop them without encouraging the fight. I’m truly sorry.”

She wasn’t exactly sure what she expected Regina’s response to be, but she was surprised when Regina simply said, “You are forgiven, Knight Swan.”

“Thank you, my queen.”

Feeling considerably lighter, Emma stood up, saluted, and turned to leave, but was stopped by Regina telling her to wait a moment. She turned back, curious as to what else Regina had to say to her.

“As well, if it is to be asked who is the leader of my personal knights, inform them that I have ordered that you are.”

“Your Highness?” Emma’s eyes had widened in surprise; she was unsure that she had heard correctly. “Truly?”

“You made to stop them and didn’t fight back despite Remus attacking you. Not to mention that you are the only one to have come and apologized for your actions. I believe those actions alone have earned you a leadership position.”

Regina looked up from a paper she’d been skimming and gave Emma a genuine smile. “You’ve earned it, dear.”

“I–” Emma blinked a few times before the news actually sunk in, and then she grinned widely and drew herself up straight. “Thank you, my queen. I’ll make you proud.”

“I’m sure you will,” Regina said airily. “You’re dismissed.”

Emma saluted again with almost enough strength from her excitement to bruise herself and then turned and left the room, Regina watching her go with a smile and a quiet chuckle.

* * *

Emma thought about Graham’s offer a lot, especially when it passed a week that she’d been in Storybrooke and she was still renting a room at the Bed and Breakfast, though she had a feeling Miss Lucas – Granny – had stopped charging her credit card for the room.

Almost unsurprisingly at this point, she found herself still in Storybrooke the next Monday, talking with Ruby as she ate. As she was drinking her coffee – well, more like chugging it really – in an attempt to wake herself up, Ruby leaned against the counter and looked at her curiously.

“What?” she asked into her coffee cup, watching Ruby warily over the rim of it. In the short time she’d known her, Ruby had proven to have a vicious mischievous streak, and Emma really didn’t want to face that this morning.

“It’s been a week,” Ruby said in a sing-song tone, leaning farther over the counter; Emma made a point to keep her eyes on Ruby’s face. “And you’re still here.”

Emma lowered her coffee cup and gave a slight smile, though she suspected it looked rather strained. “I am.”

“So does this mean you’re going to stick around a while longer?”

Ruby looked at her eagerly, obviously hoping that she would say yes. In the past week that she’d been here, Emma had spent quite a lot of her free time – meaning all of her time – in the diner and had been kept company by Ruby for most of that time. She’d seen the other waitress a few times but had never spoken to her.

She sighed and sat back in her seat, rubbing at her forehead. “I don’t know. I’m still here, and my stuff’s strewn all over my room so.” She shrugged, and Ruby grinned at her.

“I’m glad then.”

Ruby winked at her before sauntering off to wait on a table. Emma rolled her eyes in amusement and lifted her coffee to her lips again.

She’d just drunk the last of it when the bell over the door rang, and when she glanced over to see who it was, she was surprised to see Regina. She met Emma’s eyes as the door shut behind her, and she almost smiled, stifling it just as it began to show, however.

“Madam Mayor,” Emma said, giving her a slight grin.

“Miss Swan,” Regina returned after a beat and took a seat beside her.

As if she’d been summoned, Ruby appeared before them again and conversed with Regina for barely five seconds before turning and heading toward the coffee pot.

“I have a late meeting this afternoon,” Regina said with a nod of thanks as Ruby handed her a cup of coffee. “Usually, Henry would walk home by himself after school, but I thought maybe you could pick him up instead?”

Emma blinked at her in surprise. “Sure,” she finally said after taking a moment to find her voice. She still wasn’t sure why Regina was being so civil to her; she’d honestly expected the woman to all but run her out of town, worried she would try to take Henry away from her. “I can do that.”

“Excellent.” Regina slid from her seat, coffee in hand, and smiled slightly at Emma. “I’ll see you after my meeting then.”

And then she was gone, the bell jingling again as she exited, and Emma was left still feeling rather bewildered. She turned back to see Ruby grinning at her, though it should probably actually be qualified as a smirk.

“I really don’t think you’re leaving any time soon,” Ruby remarked.

Emma sighed because she was right and they both knew it. “I better get another coffee, then. I need to go talk to Graham.”

Ruby beamed at her.

/

Graham was the only one there when she arrived, and he was reclined in his chair, fast asleep. She leaned against the doorway to his office and loudly cleared her throat, and he jerked harshly and almost crashed to the floor in surprise.

She was laughing when he recovered enough to look at her, and he frowned for a moment before smiling as well. “How can I help you, Emma?” he called, sitting up straight and motioning to the seat on the other side of his desk.

“About that job you offered me,” she hedged, sitting down, and Graham immediately beamed at her. “Does that offer still stand?”

“There was no expiration date on it,” Graham replied kindly, showing his teeth in a wide smile that stretched his entire face. “So does this mean you’ve come to accept the offer?”

He looked hopeful as well, just like Ruby had, and Emma shifted uncomfortably in her chair. She wasn’t used to people wanting her company; she’d never really had friends before.

“Y-yeah,” she said once she realized she’d been silent for too long. “Yes, I am.”

If it was possible, Graham’s grin widened even more. “Excellent,” he said cheerfully, and he immediately rolled his chair back and opened a drawer, rifling through it for something. After a minute, he came up with something, and he handed it to her.

She took it and turned it over in her hands. It was a badge that had deputy printed on it in shining gold letters; she vaguely recalled seeing Riley wear the same badge when they’d been at the mines.

“That’s the only other one of those I have,” Graham told her, pointing at the badge. “So don’t lose it.”

“I won’t.”

He motioned at her, and she shifted and clipped the badge to her belt. “Welcome to the force, Emma,” Graham said cheerily, and she gave him a genuine smile in response.

/

She genuinely thought Henry was going to squeal when he spotted the new badge at her waist. To him, it was a sign that she wasn’t leaving, that she was going to stay, for him. And he’d be mostly right in his assessment. He was the main reason for her staying.

The other reason was his mother, who was more of an enigma than anyone she’d ever met in her life, and she’d definitely met her fair share of characters as a bounty hunter. She was staying for the Mills.

“Hey, kid!” she was surprised by the strength behind the hug he grabbed her in, his arms wrapping around her stomach, as it was the highest he could reach on her; if he’d hit her with any more force, he would have knocked her on her ass.

He lifted his head and beamed at her, his cheek pressed to her stomach. “You’re staying?” he asked, his eyes wide and expectant.

“For now, yeah.”

His smile widened, and he let her go and skipped back a few steps to beam up at her. She faltered under the weight of his gaze; how was it that a ten year old boy could put so much pressure on her with just a smile?

She had just opened her mouth to tell Henry that she was walking him home when she heard someone call Henry’s name. They both turned to see Henry’s teacher - Mary Margaret, wasn’t it? - walking toward them.

Henry beamed at Mary Margaret as she reached them, and Mary Margaret smiled at him before turning to Emma, setting a hand on Henry’s shoulder. “It’s nice to see you again. Ruby told me you were still around, but I was starting to think she was making it up.”

“No,” Emma smiled, “I’m definitely here, because everyone keeps staring at me everywhere I go.”

Mary Margaret laughed, and Henry’s grin widened. “I take it you’re going to be staying for a while, then?” She motioned at the badge on Emma’s belt, and Emma nodded. “I’m in the market for a roommate at the moment. Maybe you’d like to be the one? If you need a place to stay, that is; I know there aren’t many openings around town.”

As she looked like she was about to start rambling, Emma quickly spoke up to stop her from babbling. “Sure,” she said, and Mary Margaret looked relieved. “I have to take Henry home today, but maybe we could meet up for breakfast at Granny’s tomorrow?”

“Okay!” Mary Margaret chirped, her face lighting up in a way that reminded Emma of Henry. “That sounds great! I’ll see you in the morning, then.”

After she said goodbye to Henry and told Emma what time she’d been at the diner, Mary Margaret turned and walked off down the sidewalk, a noticeable spring in her step.

As she watched her go, Emma asked Henry, “So who is she in that book?”

“Snow White,” Henry answered cheerily.

From what she remembered of the Disney movie, Emma had to admit that Mary Margaret resembled her somewhat, but not any more than she herself resembled the savior. She wondered how much time Henry put into placing everyone around town into his book.

She wanted to ask about some of the other people she’d met in town, but she resisted her curiosity and ruffled Henry’s hair and said as he scowled at her, “C’mon, I promised your mom I’d walk you home.”


	3. Chapter 3

Remus led a small squad of soldiers through the woods, straining to hear any sounds out of the ordinary. They were investigating claims of a wild animal attacking around the time of the full moon for the past several months, but Remus was wary of such a specific time span for the attacks, at least until he saw a body for himself.

It had been gruesome, and despite his many years hunting, even his stomach had turned at the sight. The poor man had been ripped to absolute shreds, limbs torn from his body and bones and innards visible. Even Romulus had been put off by the state of the body.

Something brutal was definitely attacking the villagers, and as it was suspected that a brother was committing these horrible acts, Remus insisted on taking responsibility for finding the culprit and killing them if necessary.

The more bodies he’d seen, the more he’d believed the attacker was a wolf; he’d seen his brother attack and kill too many times to not recognize the signs. He was both dreading and looking forward to finding the wolf, because as much as he hated to kill a brother, it was necessary for the safety of the kingdom.

Romulus began growling, catching his attention, and Remus quickly stopped his horse and drew his sword and motioned for the others to do the same. “What do you hear, Brother?” Remus asked quietly, his eyes searching the nearby shadows for what they had been hunting for in this forest for the past several days.

He couldn’t see anything no matter how hard he tried, though, and he was just about to ask his brother to lead the way when a loud howl suddenly ripped through the air, sending shivers rolling down Remus’ spine. It was a chilling sound, and he knew in that moment that the attacker was no wolf he knew.

Several horses jerked their heads at the sound and some of the soldiers made frightened sounds, but they all followed Remus as he sheathed his sword and nudged his horse into motion and raced off deeper into the forest, Romulus leading the way.

The howl hadn’t sounded that far away, and it was only a few minutes before Remus burst into a clearing to find a large russet-furred beast – it was far too large to be a wolf – with its muzzle in the chest of a man, who was moaning and trying vainly to push the beast off himself.

Remus’s stomach protested at the sight, but he steeled himself and quickly pulled his bow from his back, notched an arrow, and put the poor man out of his misery.

The arrow whizzing past the beast’s head caused it to jerk away in surprise, and when it turned on Remus, he found he was quite mistaken at thinking it was not a brother. It was indeed a wolf, though almost double the size of any brother he had ever seen, and as well, it did not calm at the sight of either he or Romulus, instead baring its teeth and approaching them cautiously with a low growl.

“Get ready, men,” Remus said quietly, eyes on the wolf as he replaced his bow and set a hand on the pommel of his sword.

Behind him, he heard the creak of leather and the rustle of armor that meant that the others were ready to fight as well. Slowly, Remus adjusted himself in his saddle so he could dismount quickly, took a deep breath, and cried, “Attack!”

There was a clatter of armor as Remus led the charge against the wolf, which leaped at them as soon as they all moved, and Remus met it head-on, sword raised. He pressed back against it with all his strength, straining to keep the wolf from disarming him. It growled and snarled, but he held strong, holding it back as Mulan passed him and sliced at it with her sword.

The strike hit, and the great wolf backpedaled quickly, teeth bared and the fur on its side beginning to mat with blood. It was focused on Mulan now and charged her viciously, but she was faster and dodged out of the way, allowing one of them men to shoot an arrow into the wolf’s shoulder.

It still fought, however, snapping at anyone that came within range of its teeth, but luckily, its strength seemed to be draining along with its blood, and within a few minutes, it was wobbling on its paws and weakly snarling at them in one last attempt to scare them off. When it realized that they weren’t intimidated, however, it collapsed to the ground, quickly staining the area around it bright red.

Remus took a deep breath and raised his sword to end it, but before he could finish it, Romulus appeared, shielding the massive wolf with its body and staring up at Remus with his bright yellow eyes. For a moment, Remus hesitated, but eventually, his trust of his brother won over and he lowered his sword.

“What would you have me do?” he asked quietly, acutely aware of some of the soldiers muttering to each other, saying he should just kill the beast and be done with it. “It’s too dangerous to keep alive.”

Romulus didn’t make a sound, just nosed at the beast underneath it with his muzzle, which quickly turned red with blood. The strange wolf was bleeding out fast, and despite his misgivings, Remus called for bandages to wrap the beast’s wounds.

When they tried to move the beast, however, Romulus stopped them, so there was nothing Remus could do but order his men to set up camp for now until his brother judged it time to move the beast. Despite their obvious disagreement with him, the men did as they were told under the harsh gaze of Mulan, who Remus found he appreciated more and more; she was one of few who hadn’t judged him for claiming a wolf as his brother.

They waited for several hours, Romulus never moving from the strange wolf’s side, and Remus waited patiently, even as the sun rose and his men stirred and grumbled amongst each other.

Remus’s patience was rewarded, however, when the shape of the beast melted away in the dim sunlight to reveal a human woman, her hair the same color as the beast’s fur. At the sight, Remus suddenly remembered stories he’d heard in taverns across the realm of people who transformed into savage beasts under the influence of a full moon. Until now, he’d dismissed the tales as nothing more than a good story, but there was no denying what was in front of him.

The soldiers were all gaping in shock at the sight, but Mulan, ever stoic, didn’t hesitate to approach the unconscious woman and wrap her in a blanket they had been using to keep warm through the night.

Remus started into action as Mulan lifted the woman in her arms and moved to help her onto Mulan’s horse so they could bring her back to the castle with them.

Once he had done so, he turned back to his men to see them watching them in shock, and when he barked for them to mount their horses, they scattered like a flock of birds.

/

Emma was waiting just inside the castle walls when they returned, and she was obviously surprised at the sight of the woman on the back of Mulan’s horse.

“Who is she?” she asked as she helped Remus pull her from the horse’s back.

“We’ve no idea,” Remus replied honestly, gathering the woman in his arms. “She is what’s been attacking the people. She’s a shape-shifter; the full moon turns her.”

It quickly became apparent that Emma had heard the same stories he had when she only took a few moments to absorb the information before dismissing the soldiers, who left reluctantly, and lowering her voice.

“Has she been unconscious since you found her?” she asked softly, and Remus nodded.

“We attacked her late last night after we found her mauling a man. Romulus wouldn’t let me kill her, so she turned back when the sun rose this morning. She hasn’t stirred since she fainted from blood loss last night.”

Emma looked thoughtful for a minute. “Okay. Take her inside and find her a room and someone to tend to her wounds. We’ll give her some time to recover before we start asking questions. After dinner, then?”

Remus nodded agreement, shifted the woman so he could hold her more easily, and headed into the castle.

/

Emma let herself into the wolf-woman’s room, careful to be quiet in case she was asleep. She was awake, however, and flinched away at the sight of Emma’s sword, fear obvious in her eyes.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” Emma said, lifting her hands before unbuckling her sword belt and setting it on a table in the corner. Once it was out of her reach, the woman looked less afraid of her and watched closely as she sent Mulan off for dinner and took her seat instead.

The woman’s eyes followed Mulan out of the room, and once they were alone, she looked back at Emma, her expression full of clear suspicion.

“I just want to talk,” Emma told her softly. “May I?”

She waited as the woman eyed her suspiciously for several moments before nodding and shifting in bed, and it was only then that Emma realized Romulus was lying beside her, looking the perfect picture of asleep if not for his eyes watching Emma’s every move.

Before Emma could introduce herself, the door opened again, and the woman’s eyes flew to it, body tensing. It was Remus, and he smiled at the woman before pulling another chair over and sitting. Romulus growled quietly at him in greeting, and the woman looked down at the wolf curiously.

“My name is Emma and this is Remus. We’re knights of Queen Regina’s personal guard.”

The woman didn’t speak, just reached over and scratched Romulus behind his ears, and Remus eyed the action for a moment before he spoke, his voice kind.

“His name is Romulus,” he offered, and the woman nodded. Mulan must have told her earlier. “He’s my brother. I’ve been with him for years. His family took me in as a child and raised me; I owe them my life.”

Romulus grumbled something and nosed at the woman’s hand, and she looked from him to Remus with an expression that was less suspicious than before. Perhaps she felt she could trust Remus because of his relationship with the wolves?

“I’m Red,” she said quietly, so faintly Emma almost didn’t hear her. “D-did I kill anyone last night?”

Emma swallowed thickly and winced at the hesitant question and the obvious fear in Red’s eyes. It was clear she was terrified of the wolf and at the very idea that she might have killed someone. Emma couldn’t possibly sentence someone like this to death.

It was more than obvious by their expressions what had happened, though, and Red broke down into loud sobs. Romulus whined and pressed his body to hers, nosing at her face with his muzzle, and it seemed to help comfort her slightly.

As Red wrapped her arms around him, Emma turned to Remus and said quietly, “I’m going to speak with Queen Regina about this. We can’t kill her.”

Remus, of course, agreed, and Emma quickly left the room and traced the familiar route up to Regina’s office. She had been informed earlier and was eager for news; Emma hoped she would agree that keeping Red alive was the best option.

She was told to enter, and upon doing so, Emma found Regina waiting attentively, her curiosity palpable. Emma quickly saluted and told Regina of how Red had been absolutely terrified of them and had gone to pieces when she’d learned she’d killed someone.

When she’d finished, Regina was looking at her with a carefully unreadable expression, and Emma cleared her throat and hedged, “Is it necessary that we kill her, Your Highness? She’s obviously not attacking consciously; we could keep her here and secure her on the full moon to keep people safe.”

Had the suggestion come from anyone else, Emma felt that Regina wouldn’t be considering it as seriously as she was now. Was it because she was the leader of her guard that she was considering sparing Red?

Emma waited impatiently as Regina mulled the idea over, trying her best not to fidget too much. Finally, Regina cleared her throat, calling Emma’s attention back to here where she’d been trying to distract herself to keep herself still; Emma’s neck felt hot at being caught.

“Very well. She may stay; preparations will be made to secure her on the full moon. You are dismissed.”

“Thank you very much,” Emma said earnestly, unable to hide her happiness at Red being spared. Regina nodded and gave her a small smile before making a motion that was clearly dismissal.

She almost skipped back downstairs to Red’s room, and once she arrived and opened the door, three pairs of eyes focused on her, obviously eager to hear the verdict. The smile on her face was an answer, and the relief on Remus’s and Red’s faces was clearly visible.

“The queen has allowed you to stay with the condition that you be quartered off during the full moon for everyone’s safety. I’ll find you a position in the castle as soon as I can.”

“Thank you, Knight Swan!” Red said, reaching out and grabbing Emma’s hand and squeezing it gratefully between both of hers. “I truly appreciate you speaking with the queen about sparing me.”

Emma smiled at her, feeling heat crawling up the back of her neck again. “Of course. We’re not heartless. And call me Emma, please; I’ve still not quite gotten used to being addressed by my title.”

“Thank you, Emma.”

* * *

Emma was up early the next morning to meet Mary Margaret before work, and she was grateful when Ruby took mercy on her and gave her a coffee free of charge. She had gotten used to waking up whenever she felt like it, but now she was going to have to get back on a schedule again.

She was still bleary-eyed when Mary Margaret arrived, looking wide awake. Just seeing her looking so cheerful so early made Emma want to call this whole thing off and go back to bed, but then Mary Margaret was sitting across from her with a coffee of her own and it was too late.

“Good morning!” Mary Margaret chirped, and Emma gave her a wan smile in response. “I guess you’re not a morning person, then?”

She could be, just not at the moment. “I haven’t been up this early in weeks,” she offered apologetically. “I’m sorry; I’ll be better once I’m used to a schedule again.”

Mary Margaret beamed at her again before getting down to business, and within the hour, the two of them had settled how to split the rent and Mary Margaret was handing over a key to the apartment.

“Thank you,” Emma said as she pocketed the key. “I really appreciate this. I was beginning to think I was going to have to live at the inn.”

“Oh, it’s my pleasure,” Mary Margaret said cheerily. “The loft’s really too big for just one person, so this will be great.”

They went their separate ways a few minutes later, Mary Margaret off to the school and Emma to the sheriff’s stations. She wasn’t really sure what to expect when she got there, but it was definitely not Graham and Riley arguing over a box of doughnuts.

“Ah, Emma!” Graham said when he noticed her standing in the doorway watching them. He quickly picked up the box of doughnuts and thrust it toward her. “Doughnut?”

/

Just as Graham had told her the day before, work was slow. They all took turns responding to calls, of which there were a grand total of two, so Emma spent most of the day studying maps of the town and learning from Graham and Riley how to properly shoot a gun. She suspected they were taking advantage of her lack of knowledge to avoid filling out the stacks of paperwork piled on top of both of their desks.

By the time they left for the day, Emma had memorized most of the town’s layout, most importantly where she was going to be living from now on. It wasn’t very far from the sheriff’s office, luckily, so she was there within ten minutes.

True to her word, Mary Margaret was already there, surrounded by stacks of homework, but she stopped when Emma arrived and asked if she needed any help bringing her stuff up.

“No,” Emma said with a laugh. Mary Margaret frowned at her, obviously not understanding what was so funny, so Emma told her, “This is pretty much it. I don’t keep a whole lot of stuff; it makes it easy when I move.”

“You move a lot?” Mary Margaret asked curiously, and Emma wondered if she was being used as a distraction again.

She shrugged and set the box on one of the kitchen chairs, taking another for herself. “I used to. I don’t like staying in one place for very long.” She shook her head and stopped herself before she began trying to explain why and instead focused on the papers Mary Margaret was grading. “So what are you doing?”

Mary Margaret seemed to realize that she didn’t want to talk about herself and immediately began explaining what her kids were doing, and Emma was grateful that she hadn’t pushed.

* * *

As the leader of Regina’s personal knights, Emma was used to being called into the queen’s office and being asked her opinion, no matter the subject, and as such, she and Regina had grown rather close over the past few moons.

“You wanted to see me?” Emma asked as she entered Regina’s office, taking a seat when Regina motioned for her to. “Is something wrong?”

“You have heard of Rumplestiltskin, correct?” Emma nodded; who in the realm hadn’t heard of the Dark One? “Good. That will make things easier.”

Regina stood up and walked around the desk before taking a seat across from Emma. “He once made a deal with one of the kingdoms that he would protect them from the ogres who they were currently at war with. In exchange, however, he requested the princess to live with him and serve him. The king denied the request, of course, but the princess defied her father and agreed to serve Rumplestiltskin in exchange for her people’s safety.

“So Rumplestiltskin took her back to the castle and imprisoned her and forced her to be his servant. I’ve met the woman once, only briefly, and though she does not regret her choice, she is not happy living with the Dark One.”

“Has something happened with her?” Emma asked, and Regina hesitated before nodding reluctantly. Emma frowned. Nothing good could come of dealing with the Dark One. What had become of the poor woman?

Regina cleared her throat and shifted in her seat before continuing. “According to what my sources have heard, Rumplestiltskin is going crazy in his castle because his servant has thrown herself off the highest tower and killed herself.”

The news hit Emma like a fist to the chest, and she made a sound like air leaking before she caught herself and quickly stopped the noise. “And you’re worried that he’ll take out his anger of the nearby kingdoms?”

“No. I think that Belle is not quite as dead as he’s quick to believe. I’m met the woman; she would never fall so low that she would willingly take her own life. Someone else’s hand is in this.”

“A fairy?” Emma asked hesitantly, trying to follow her queen’s logic. A fairy would make the most sense. They were the only one that could ever hope of fooling the Dark One, but if Regina believed this woman, Belle, was still alive, did she wish her to be sought out and returned?

Regina nodded. “Yes, I believe so, which is why I’ve called you here. I have an idea of where the fairies would have taken Belle if they have actually helped her escape. I want you to send Remus, Mulan, and Red to the Summerlands. If she is not there, however, the three of them should be able to find a trail on the outskirts of Rumplestiltskin’s kingdom and track her.”

“And return her?”

“No!” Regina snapped suddenly, and Emma flinched at the fierce tone. “No,” Regina repeated, more calmly. “Belle French should never return to Rumplestiltskin. I merely want to be assured that she is safe and sound. All they need do is locate her and assess her health. The Dark One need never know if she still lives.”

Emma released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding at the news that Belle wasn’t to be returned to her life of servitude. She knew that Regina had ties to Rumplestiltskin, so she’d feared Regina would want to return Belle. It was a relief to hear the opposite.

“I will send them out immediately, then,” she said, standing and saluting.

“Wish them the best of luck for me, will you?” Regina asked, and Emma smiled at her and nodded before turning and leaving the room.

/

That evening after she had seen Remus, Mulan, and Red off on their journey, Emma returned to Regina’s office to find it empty. She must have already retired for the night, but one of the patrolling guards passed her and told her that Regina had said to come to her chambers instead.

A few minutes later, Emma was standing in front of the doors to Regina’s private room, feeling as nervous as she had when she’d apologized for the fight several moons ago. She – as well as most of the castle’s inhabitants – had never been allowed into Regina’s private chambers.

Emma took a deep breath and knocked on the door, hesitantly entering when she was told to. As she stepped inside, she suddenly became ten times more nervous than she had been when standing outside the door, and she averted her eyes and firmly tacked her gaze to the corner of the ceiling, purposefully not looking at all the exposed skin on display.

“A guard told me to come to speak to you here,” she said, trying her best not to stumble over her words.

“The tracking group has been sent?”

There was the rustle of fabric, but Emma kept her eyes on the ceiling. “Yes. I saw them off myself not five minutes ago.”

“Excellent. Inform me immediately when they return, will you?”

“Of course.” There was a pause, and Emma shifted uncomfortably as she heard Regina moving around below her line of vision. “If that’s all?”

There was no immediate response, much to Emma’s aggravation. Was she being punished or something?

Emma started violently when she felt a hand on her cheek, and she reluctantly let Regina pull her head down until she could see her queen’s face. She was smirking, which only made Emma’s stomach twist up even more.

“So modest,” she said quietly with a chuckle and kissed Emma on the cheek before turning and disappearing off into an adjoining room.

It was a full minute later before Emma could bring herself to move.

/

She honestly hadn’t meant anything by inviting Emma to her room to inform her of the tracking group’s departure, but when she’d refused to even look at her after that first glimpse, the opportunity to tease her had been too good to resist.

The fact that Emma had so steadfastly withheld the temptation to look was oddly charming considering how many others would have reacted. While she _had_ had trouble speaking at first, Emma had handled the situation better than anyone else likely would have.

When she’d first seen Emma fighting in the tournament, she had never expected her curiosity to grow into something like feelings of attraction. They had, though, whether from the long hours spent together discussing strategy or entirely mundane things or for some other reason, she didn’t know.

Nothing could go past a kiss on the cheek and a small bit of flirting, however. There was more than protocol stopping her; she’d cast a spell on Emma when she’d been trying to convince her. She had no idea if Emma even liked her at all or if her unwavering loyalty was all because of the spell.

/

Emma sat in her quarters, lost in thought. It was not, however, on the subject it should be: the three people set out to determine Belle French’s fate. Instead, she was considering her queen in a way she’d never thought she would.

Did Regina feel something for her, or had she just been teasing her? It was honestly hard to tell. They did tease each other, but something about this had felt different somehow. Maybe she was overthinking it?

She made a frustrated noise and ran her hands through her hair. She was thinking in circles and not reaching any conclusions by doing so, but what else was she supposed to do? Ask Regina herself?

Once the thought passed through her mind, it didn’t wouldn’t leave, so against her better judgment, Emma left her room and stormed up to Regina’s chambers, the other inhabitants of the castle giving her a wide berth because of how frustrated she was sure she looked.

Without even stopping to announce herself, Emma opened the doors to Regina’s room and stomped inside. Regina looked surprised by her sudden appearance; she stared at her for a few seconds before shutting the book she was reading and asking, “What is it?”

She needed answers, but her body seemed to have different ideas. She stalked across the room to where Regina was now standing and looking at her curiously, wrapped a hand around her shoulder, and kissed her as gently as she could.

* * *

The next night at around eight as she was sitting with Mary Margaret on the couch watching some ridiculous reality TV show that Mary Margaret seemed to be addicted to, Emma’s phone rang.

She frowned when Graham’s name appeared on the screen, and she offered a hesitant greeting when she answered. What had happened that he was calling her so late on a Friday night? Had something actually happened?

“Um, hey,” Graham said when she had answered, and he sounded oddly nervous. “I hate to drop this on you so soon, but I got a call from the Rabbit Hole about one of the patrons. He’s apparently completely plastered and irritating everyone else there.”

Emma sighed; she knew where this was heading. “And I need to go bring him in to sleep it off, right?”

“Right. And I am sorry, but we have a system with this guy. We take turns, and since you’re new-”

He left the thought unfinished, but Emma could fill in the blanks. “Yeah, sure, I’ve got it.”

“Thank you, Emma,” Graham said earnestly.

/

Initially, Emma had suspected she might have to ask who exactly she was supposed to bring in for the night, but when she arrived at the Rabbit Hole, it was more than obvious.

When she pulled up to the bar, there was a man sitting on the edge of the sidewalk and weaving back and forth and singing loudly and horribly off-key. Emma sighed at the sight - drunks were never fun to deal with - and forced herself to step out of her car.

The man looked up from where he was sat, and he grinned as he watched her with glassy eyes. “Hello there!” he called loudly with a grin that might have been lecherous if it wasn’t for the fact that it looked dopey from the alcohol. “So you’re the new deputy people have been talking about. I see why now. You’re _much_ better looking than the others.”

He frowned and looked to be struggling to think of something, but as he was completely sloshed, he seemed to forget he was even trying to think a few seconds later and returned to grinning at her.

“Okay, time to go,” she said and pulled him up with a hand on his arm and another on his back. He stumbled when he was up straight, but he luckily caught himself before he face-planted onto the asphalt.

She was happy when the man allowed himself to be maneuvered into her car, but less so when he immediately began running his finger over the condensation on the window after she shut the door. Obviously, she was going to have to deal with a five year old on the way back to the station.

By the time she was sat in the driver’s seat, he had drawn a surprisingly good cat considering how drunk he was. The drawing was only slightly wobbly.

“‘m Devlin,” he slurred as she started the car and put it in gear. “And you’re,” he paused, brows furrowing, then continued, “Swan, right? Can’t remember your first name, but oh well.”

Then he gave another dopey grin and began trying to roll down the window, and Emma just sighed and hoped he didn’t throw up.

/

For whatever reason, Devlin had seemed to think that sticking his head out the open window like a dog would be a good idea, and unfortunately, his balance hadn’t been exactly stellar, and Emma had almost had to scrape him off the pavement.

Afterward, he’d taken to fiddling with her radio instead, and it was now blasting static, which Devlin had apparently decided was the best soundtrack to accompany the worst drive of Emma’s life.

So when she finally stopped in front of the sheriff’s office, she could have cried with relief. She resisted the urge, however, but it was tempting when Devlin passed out as soon as she pulled her keys out of the ignition, his forehead thumping loudly into the dashboard.

She cursed with every step as she hauled Devlin’s limp form into the building, and by the time she finally deposited him in the cell, she had to resist the urge to stomp on him a few times for everything he’d put her through for the last hour.

When she called Graham, she was irritable, and he seemed to pick up on it quickly and meekly offered her a thank you before telling her to go home and go to sleep, that she could come in an hour later Monday morning.

She resisted the urge to tell him that she’d been planning to anyway, but as she needed this job if she wanted any income, she just gritted her teeth and thanked him for the extra hour before leaving Devlin in the dark and stomping out to her car.

/

Mary Margaret was already gone by the time Emma woke up Monday, and the diner was almost empty when she arrived, everyone already at work for the day.

There were a few patrons, however, and when Emma saw the one at the bar, she almost turned and walked right back out, content to go hungry until lunch rather than face Devlin again.

But her stomach growled, and she grudgingly continued to the bar. There was a coffee in front of her no sooner than she sat down, and she mumbled her thanks to Ruby before downing the entire cup in two gulps.

“What’s up with you?” Ruby asked as she refilled the cup, and Emma just jabbed a finger toward where Devlin was devouring a large stack of pancakes. “Ah, I see.”

Devlin looked up to see the both of them watching him, though it was more glaring on Emma’s part, and he gave a sheepish smile. “Hello,” he said quietly, and he cleared his throat. “I’m sorry about my behavior Friday. I tend to get out of hand when I drink excessively.”

“I’d noticed,” Emma grumbled, and Devlin gave an uncomfortable laugh.

He sat up straight and turned to face her, pancakes forgotten, and held out a hand, which she took after a moment of hesitation. “My name is Devlin Jackson, and I’d very much like if we could forget that night and start over.”

Emma eyed him appraisingly, and he smiled at her. He seemed sincere about starting over, so she pumped his hand once and said, “Agreed. My name is Emma Swan.”

Devlin beamed at her, and when they’d dropped hands, he hopped over to sit next to her, dragging his pancakes along with him. He began eating again without a word, and she watched with a bit of admiration as he devoured the pancakes at a remarkable speed.

He glanced up at her with a smile when he paused to take a drink, but before she could even look away, he said, “You know, I’m actually the one that brings in all of the seafood in town. I’m not just a worthless drunk.”

Emma must have looked surprised because Devlin laughed. She recovered quickly, however, and replied, “Well, I’m surprised that a drunkard is in charge of something so important.” Devlin laughed and agreed, much to her surprise, and she decided then that maybe he wasn’t as bad as first appearances had her believe.

They ate together, and Devlin told her some about the town that she hadn’t heard about before. Emma hadn’t even been aware that they’d had a library; there wasn’t anything about it on the maps she’d looked at earlier that week.

When she told Devlin as much, he just laughed and told her that those maps were likely years out of date, that it had only opened after Caitlyn - the librarian - had had enough of her boyfriend and decided to take her life into her own hands.

“She’s very nice,” Devlin had said about Caitlyn, with a smirk that was nothing short of lecherous. “And I don’t just mean easy on the eyes either,” he added at Emma’s raised eyebrow. “She’s actually kind, even to a drunkard fisherman.”

Emma wasn’t sure what she was more surprised about: that Devlin read or that he appreciated the librarian for more than her looks. In the short time she’d known him, she’d already picked up on the fact that he would hit on anything that moved.

“You’re the man-whore of Storybrooke,” Ruby had remarked when she’d overheard Devlin talking about Caitlyn. “Who haven’t you slept with?”

But Devlin, undeterred, had just batted his eyelashes at her and replied, “You.”

She’d responded by adding salt to his next cup of coffee, and though he spat it across the counter, Ruby said it was worth it, adding to Emma that the man would sleep with anything with a pulse and to beware.

By the time Emma had to leave, though, she had to admit that she liked Devlin, man-whore or no, especially when he gave her his number before he left and told her to call him if she ever needed his help; whether he was drunk or not, he’d come.

Emma had been surprised by the sudden seriousness of Devlin’s expression, but she accepted his number and thanked him for the offer, that she would if she ever needed help.

Then he’d smiled and sauntered from the diner, whistling as he went.

* * *

It was morning before the three of them arrived at the Summerlands. Upon reaching the border, they were immediately struck by the amount of guards patrolling; there were easily double the amount expected. Initially, the three of them had been skeptical of an escaped prisoner being held there, but at the sight of the guards, they exchanged surprised looks. Perhaps this wasn’t as ridiculous as first expected.

“Identify yourselves!” a voice yelled, and although Red flinched like she’d been struck, Mulan and Remus kept their expressions clear.

“Scouts of Queen Regina come to speak with your king and queen,” Remus called as the guards appeared from the trees, weapons raised and eyeing them warily. “We simply wish to talk; we come in peace.”

A few of the guards glanced at each other with deep frowns, but the leader watched them all for a few, long seconds before nodding. “Very well. But if we suspect you of lying, we won’t hesitate to turn on you.”

“Agreed.”

The captain nodded and tugged on his horse’s reins to lead them deeper into the kingdom, and they fell into step behind him, the rest of the guards surrounding them.

Despite understanding the need for tight security and knowing that the three of them could win if it came to a fight, Mulan was uncomfortable at being boxed in by the guards, not to mention the fact that they all kept shooting them suspicious looks.

“You are members of Queen Regina’s personal guard, are you not?” the leader asked after several minutes of riding in silence. Remus murmured agreement. “What’s so important that she sent her best men to the Summerlands?”

“We’re here to speak with the king and queen, not their guards,” Mulan replied darkly, and after glancing back at her with a deep frown, the captain nodded and fell silent once more.

They reached the castle without another word, and upon their approach, another squad of guards appeared out of the grounds to stand at the gates and watch them.

“Guards of Queen Regina here to speak with the king and queen,” the captain said. “They wouldn’t say why; be on your guard.” The other guards nodded, and the captain turned back to look at Remus. “Leave your horses here; we’ll take care of them for you.”

They dismounted their horses in silence, and the first group of guards quickly disappeared with the horses into the castle grounds. The second squad then led them inside, and as they crossed the courtyard to the entrance to the castle, Mulan could feel eyes following them.

The feeling followed them all the way through the castle and into the throne room where the king and queen were speaking with a group of commoners, and though they made no indication that they had seen the three guests, Mulan noticed the queen eyeing them covertly.

Finally, the commoners left, and the guards motioned them forward, sticking close to them as they do so. Did they treat all of their visitors like this, or were they being treated so warily because of the insignia on their armor?

“Guards of Queen Regina to speak with you,” one of the guards said, and the king and queen looked at the three of them expectantly and the king motioned for them to speak.

“We were sent on the suspicion that Princess Belle may have been brought to your kingdom.”

The royals exchanged a look before turning back and glaring at them with clear suspicion in their eyes. “Word reached us that she had killed herself. Why would you think she would be here?”

Mulan heard Red make a sound like she wanted to speak, but she didn’t and stayed silent instead. “With all due respect, Your Majesties,” Mulan said. “We’re here on our queen’s suspicions, not our own. She told us she simply wished to know if the princess still lived, nothing more. We’re to leave once we’ve ascertained the truth.”

All eyes turned to her, and for a minute, no one spoke. The king and queen exchanged looks once more, and Mulan expected that they were deciding whether or not to throw them out of the castle. Then they nodded and turned back, and Mulan knew they’d reached a decision that wasn’t going to be good.

They were saved by Red sneezing loudly. “Sorry,” she mumbled, rubbing at her nose as her ears turned red.

The king and queen stared at her as if just noticing her, and Red looked up and met their eyes with an expression like a rabbit preparing to flee. “You brought a werewolf?” the queen asked incredulously, and Red flushed crimson and seemed to shrink a few inches.

“She’s our best tracker,” Remus said firmly as Mulan asked, “How could you tell?”

“Fairy dust,” the queen said to Mulan. “They’re allergic.” As if to prove her point, Red sneezed again. “Queen Regina trusts a werewolf with two of her guards?”

Mulan frowned. Why was there fairy dust in the castle? Then she remembered the stories she’d heard before she’d joined Regina’s guard. Word was that the Summerlands’ princess, Aurora, had been blessed by three fairies upon her birth; were they still here and not with the rest of their kind?

“Well,” the king said as Red sneezed and apologized once more, “if Queen Regina sees fit to trust a werewolf, I’m inclined to trust _her_. Belle is indeed here, safe with our daughter.”

Remus nodded. “If it’s possible, could we see her, just to make sure?”

“Of course. I understand; I know what Regina’s like.” He turned to a guard and motioned at him, and the guard bowed and disappeared out of the room.

It was several minutes before the guard returned with two women behind him, and one was obviously Princess Aurora so much did she look like the queen. The other, Belle, eyed the three of them warily. Mulan was beginning to suspect that Regina and Rumpelstiltskin had worked together at some point in the past to make these people so suspicious of her emblem.

“They mean no harm,” the queen said as the two princesses approached. “Regina simply wished to ascertain your health, Belle.” When Belle didn’t look entirely convinced, the queen smiled and motioned at Red. “She has sent a werewolf with two of her personal guards.”

Red sneezed again, and Mulan’s earlier theory that she couldn’t turn redder was proven false. “Hi,” she said hesitantly with a smile that was more of a grimace.

As Belle looked in good health as far as she could ascertain, Mulan thanked the king and queen for helping them and turned to leave before Red could completely combust from embarrassment, ignoring the princesses staring after them.

/

“And she seemed healthy?” Regina asked Remus, who nodded.

“From what we could tell, she seemed perfectly fine. She was a little scared of us at first, but that’s all.”

“I expected as much, but I’m glad to hear she’s okay.”

Emma looked to Regina and wasn’t surprised to see her expression had become strained. She’d suspected since Regina had first told her of Belle that something had happened in the past between she and Rumplestiltskin. Indeed, she’d heard whispers in the town that they had once been allies, but it was foolish to take town rumors as fact. She would only take Regina’s word at what had happened if or when she decided to tell her.

“Keep a close eye on the Summerlands. The fairies may have been strong enough to initially trick the Dark One, but he will figure out what’s happened eventually. I want to know when he does.”

Remus nodded and saluted before turning and leaving the room, and once she was alone with Regina, Emma instantly felt uneasy again. Neither had broached the subject of the kiss a few days earlier, and Emma was hoping that they never would. She would much rather it be forgotten; it hadn’t been one of her finest moments.

When she caught Regina watching her, though, she suspected her hopes were to be crushed. However, Regina just turned her attention back to the papers on her desk, and feeling she’d been dismissed, Emma stood up to leave.

“I’ll tell you about Rumpelstiltskin and myself one day, dear,” Regina said, and Emma whipped back around to frown at her. Regina smiled at her, though it was tinged with something dark. “I expect you’re going to need to know sooner rather than later.”


	4. Chapter 4

Emma had no sooner arrived at the station than she was sent out on a call to retrieve a cat from a tree. Unfortunately for her, the cat didn’t appreciate that she was trying to help it, and by the time she finally got it down, she was covered in claw marks.

Adding insult to injury, no one that had gathered to watch her get the cat had any idea who it belonged to, so she was pointed toward the animal shelter and told to take it there, and the cat didn’t appreciate the car ride any more than it did her saving it from the tree. She was ready to just strangle the thing by the time she walked into the animal shelter holding it by its scruff.

She was greeted inside by one of the volunteers, who smiled and took the cat from her, and Emma scowled deeply when the cat didn’t scratch him, just curled up in his arms and began purring. Damn cat.

The man laughed and rubbed the cat between its ears. “Emma Swan, right?” he asked, and Emma looked up from glaring at the cat to nod at him. “Mary Margaret told me about you. I’m David Nolan.”

He held out his hand, and she shook it, eyeing the cat when it hissed at her. “You two are friends?”

“Sort of. We tend to stop at the diner for breakfast at the same time, so we talk. Thank you for bringing him in,” he added, motioning down at the content cat in his arms.

“Of course,” Emma said bitterly, because her hands were still stinging from the scratches the damn cat had given her, and David chuckled as she gave the cat one more glare before leaving.

/

When she mentioned meeting David that evening over dinner with Mary Margaret, the effect was instantaneous. Mary Margaret choked on her food and coughed loudly as Emma watched on in concern.

“You did, huh?” Mary Margaret said once she’d drank half her glass of soda, and Emma raises an eyebrow at how flustered she sounded. “He’s - that’s nice.” She took another long drink, purposefully avoiding meeting Emma’s eyes.

Emma wasn’t stupid, however; it was easy to figure out why Mary Margaret had gone bright red at the mention of David. “You like him?” she said, and immediately, Mary Margaret flushed even darker and nodded with an embarrassed squeak.

“He’s married,” Mary Margaret managed to say, and any plans Emma had to talk to David vanished like fog in sunlight.

She gave Mary Margaret a look, and she seemed to shrink down in her seat under the stare, fork poking shyly at her food. Finally, Emma just sighed and rubbed at her face and said, “I’m not going to say anything.”

Mary Margaret gave her a relieved look, but she ignored it and stared down at her food.

/

Wednesday was a long day. She spent most of the day, along with Graham and Riley, chasing down a group of dogs that had somehow escaped from the animal shelter. It was late by the time they finally caught them all, and Emma was starving.

The diner was almost empty when she and Riley arrived for dinner - Graham had decided not to join them and gone straight home to nurse the muscle he’d pulled catching one of the dogs.

They sat down and ordered, and for a minute, Emma actually considered sleeping in a booth while they waited for their food. She decided against it, however, and instead buried her face in her arms on the counter and wished she was in bed right now.

It was hard to relax with Riley fidgeting next to her though, so after a minute, Emma gave up trying to rest, instead watching her co-worker out of the corner of her eye and trying to place what had her so on edge.

Ruby arrived soon with their food, and Emma was drawn out of her thoughts at the smell. They’d barely had time to eat at lunch, so she was absolutely starving and didn’t hesitate in shoveling the food into her mouth.

Next to her, Riley doesn’t seem to notice Ruby until she snapped her fingers in front of her a few times. Riley blinked a few times and mumbled an apology before beginning to eat as well, looking embarrassed.

“What’s up?” Emma asked Riley, but it was Ruby who answered, wolfish grin stretched across her face.

“Riley’s crushing hardcore on Dawn, the other waitress,” Ruby chirped with a suggestive waggle of her eyebrows, and Riley instantly turned a brilliant shade of crimson and snapped a denial, though Ruby’s smirk didn’t abate in the slightest.

“I’m just tired,” Riley said, and though it was painfully obvious that she wasn’t telling the truth, Emma just nodded and turned her attention back to her meal. She’d never seen Riley anywhere close to this flustered since she’d met her, and Emma didn’t want to be cruel by calling her out.

Ruby, however, didn’t seem to have the same reservations, but as she opened her mouth, Granny called her name from the back and Ruby grudgingly left, though not without one more teasing smirk at Riley, though she didn’t seem to notice.

With Ruby gone, Emma wanted to ask Riley the obvious question: did Dawn know that Riley liked her? But with the way Riley had curled in on herself as she picked at her meal and clearly looked like she wanted a change in topic, Emma held her tongue.

/

Emma was surprised when she walked into the diner behind Mary Margaret the next morning to find that Ruby was absent, replaced by another waitress that Emma assumed was the woman named Dawn that she had heard about the night before.

“I wonder where Ruby is,” Mary Margaret remarked as they crossed the diner to an empty booth. “That’s the other waitress,” she said to Emma. “She usually works the off hours so Ruby can take a break, so you may not have seen her.”

“Ruby mentioned her last night,” Emma told her as Dawn approached their table.

Dawn smiled at Mary Margaret, and Emma watched them as they talked for a minute, Mary Margaret asking after Ruby and Dawn replying that she’d come down with a cold and was currently upstairs huddled under a pile of blankets and sneezing every few seconds, and then the two of them caught up on each others’ lives.

When Mary Margaret mentioned Emma moving in with her, Dawn seemed to finally notice that Mary Margaret wasn’t alone at the table. “You’re Emma, then?” she asked. “Sorry about that. I’m Dawn; it’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s okay,” Emma said with a small smile. “It’s a bit of a relief, actually. Everyone else hasn’t been able to stop gaping at me.”

“Well, new people are a bit of a rare commodity,” Dawn replied with a smirk. From what she’d heard, that seemed like a bit of an understatement to Emma. This town never seemed to have visitors.

Emma returned the smirk, and Dawn laughed before asking what they wanted to order.

When she left, Emma watched her go, smiling as she decided that she understood Riley’s crush on her. Dawn was much more outspoken than Riley was and definitely charming.

“Emma!”

Emma started at the sound of Mary Margaret calling her name, and she turned to see her roommate giving her a look that was half exasperation, half amusement. “I’ve called your name three times, Emma.”

“Sorry,” Emma said, reaching a hand up and scratching at her temple. Mary Margaret just shook her head and smiled at her, and Emma wondered if she thought she was interested in Dawn. It definitely might have looked that way, so she hurriedly cleared her throat and asked Mary Margaret what her students were doing right now.

* * *

As well as keeping a close eye on the Summerlands, Emma made sure her scouts reported on the rumors of Rumplestiltskin as well. If Regina was worried about him, then she would be foolish to not be as well.

For a few weeks, however, the scouts returned with the same stories of terrible beasts roaming the Dark One’s territory, brutally killing any who stepped across the border, which while good to know, wasn’t the information she really wanted. All it meant was that the Dark One was still angry at the loss of his servant. There was no indication to if he had discovered the ruse yet.

“You shouldn’t underestimate the powers of the fairies, Emma,” Regina said when Emma told her of her thoughts. “They’re dangerous creatures and more like the Dark One than they care to let on.”

Since then, she’d been less worried about hearing news of an attack on the Summerlands, but she didn’t stop the weekly reports, though they rarely changed. Regina didn’t ask her to, either, which she took as an agreement that the reports should continue.

And concerning Regina, except for one horrible stilted conversation on Emma’s end, things had largely returned to normal between them. Emma spent a lot of time with her, and Regina respected her opinion on whatever they spoke of.

Finally, one night a moon after word had been returned that Belle was safe, Regina, who had seemed distracted by something all day, said she felt it time to tell Emma of what had happened between her and Rumplestiltskin.

“It’s a long story,” she said, and it sounded more like a plea for her to listen than a warning.

“I have time,” Emma replied, and she could see the relieved look that briefly flitted across Regina’s face.

/

“When I was sixteen, I returned from a ride to find my mother standing with my father’s body at her feet, dead but still warm. It was obvious what had happened, despite how much she tried to protest. I knew she had never loved him, only married him for the throne, but I never thought she would actually kill him.

“My parents had different ideas of how I should be raised. Father wanted to raise me as normally as possible, to let me ride and learn to fight if I wanted, but my mother insisted that those activities weren’t suitable for a princess and forbade me from doing anything she didn’t approve of. Initially, Father fought her over it, but he was weak and allowed her to overpower him.

“I still rode, but it wasn’t for enjoyment. It was simply that a queen should know how. And if she caught me out ‘riding like a man’ as she called it, I was punished, the severity ranging depending on what I was doing and her mood. It was terrible.”

There was a long stretch of silence, and Emma could see a haunted look in Regina’s eyes as she was lost in whatever memories had been brought to the surface. After a few minutes, Regina seemed to return to herself and apologized quietly before continuing.

“I loved my father very much, so of course I was devastated that my mother had killed him. I spent as much time away from the castle as I could, until that was taken away from me as well.

“That’s when _he_ appeared. I was distraught, easy pickings for the Dark One and whatever his motivations were. He offered to help rid me of my mother by teaching me magic. The offer appealed to me, being free of my mother and her influence, but I turned him down. The idea of killing my mother was too much, even with how much I had grown to resent her over the years.

“Rumplestiltskin didn’t seem surprised when I turned him down, just smiled at me and left without another word. He’d planted the idea, though, and I think that’s all he wanted to do at that point.

“I confronted my mother about killing Father, but that didn’t accomplish anything other than making her angry at me. She confined me to my room as well, and I had nothing to do but think.

“So I called Rumplestiltskin’s name, and he appeared as suddenly as if he’d been there the entire time, sitting in a chair by the fireplace. I told him I would accept his offer of help, but he tutted at me and said the offer had changed. He would teach me magic only if I brought him my mother’s heart.

“I’d never been exposed to magic before then, so I was of course confused at the thought of being able to remove a person’s heart from his body. But he just smiled at me and said it was as easy as plucking an apple from a tree, and if I truly wanted his help, then that was his price. And then he was gone again.

“As the only thing keeping me inside the castle was a locked door, I snuck out to the stables and took a ride, thinking about Rumplestiltskin’s offer. When I returned, however, my mother was waiting for me, more furious than I’d ever seen her before.

“She wrapped me with magic and lifted me into the air as she yelled at me, and as she did, something inside me just broke. I pushed back and the bonds holding me broke as easily as if they were twigs. My mother was completely shocked because she thought me no match for her.

“Propelled by whatever had taken hold of me, I plunged my hand into my mother’s chest where her heart should have been, but it was empty. There was no heart for me to take.

“I was shocked by what I’d found, and I then understood why she had been so uncaring over the years. Without a heart, she couldn’t have loved me or Father. While I was distracted, my mother flung me away with her own magic, and I collided with the wall of the stable and was momentarily dazed.

“I lifted my head, and as the world spun, I noticed a figure behind my mother, holding a box in his hands. Then he laughed, a horrible, cackling sound, and I knew it was Rumplestiltskin. At first, I thought he’d come to save me, but I was wrong. It’s impossible for him to care for anyone; all he wanted was the fulfillment of my end of the deal.

“I learned later that all he’d wanted was for me to leave the castle and draw my mother out so he could steal the box. He’d known that my mother’s heart was not in her body.

“He smiled at my mother as she stared at him in shock and then walked over to me, pulled me to my feet with magic, and handed me the box. It felt warm in my hands, and when I opened it, I understood why.

“My mother’s heart was inside, beating despite being separated from her body. I simply stared at it for a moment until Rumplestiltskin urged me to take it and crush it in my hands.

“Despite all that had happened, I still didn’t want my mother dead. I wanted her to love me, for us to be a family, for her to apologize for killing Father. So I lifted the heart from the box and stared at it in my hand, and I looked at my mother and begged her to apologize, my voice shaking.

“My last hopes of a mother who loved me died as she sneered at me and spat that she would never apologize for killing him, that he’d been weak and a terrible influence on me my entire life.

“And I saw red. The next thing I knew, there was dust trickling between my fingers, and my mother was lying on the floor of the stable, dead. I’d killed her by crushing her heart.

“I broke down, and Rumplestiltskin regarded me carefully as I did. He didn’t sneer, didn’t laugh, didn’t celebrate, just stood there until I had run out of tears. Once I had, he told me that I’d fulfilled my end of the deal, and he would teach me magic and help me rule my kingdom. I accepted. What else was I to do? I was an orphan now and the only living heir to the throne.

“So he began to teach me magic, and I became queen just before I turned seventeen. My advisors were against it and insisted that I should wait, but Rumplestiltskin was pushing me to take the throne, and so I did.

“I’m not proud of what I did, but in retrospect, it’s probably best that I did what I did. The kingdom has prospered under my rule, a far cry from the impoverished, fruitless land it was under my mother. But I owe Rumplestiltskin nothing, and he knows this. That is why I want to protect Belle from him.”

For a while, it was silent. Emma was absorbing everything she’d just been told, and Regina looked like she was trying not to think too much.

Finally, Emma reached over and took Regina’s hands in hers, and Regina opened her eyes and looked at her curiously. Emma smiled. “Thank you for telling me.”

The corners of Regina’s lips pulled up slightly, which only made Emma’s smile widen, and then she stood, pulled Emma up as well, and wrapped her arms around her neck in a hug.

/

Regina felt immensely relieved at how well Emma had taken the story of how she’d become queen. In fact, she’d reacted better than she’d ever expected. She hadn’t asked anything about her magic or eyed her suspiciously because of it; just hugged her back quietly.

And then Emma had kissed her again, and Regina had been too emotionally exhausted to push her away, to say that they shouldn’t. She knew getting involved would only lead to something terrible happening in the future, but at that moment, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to care.

The full impact of what she’d done only hit her later as she was lying in bed trying to clear her mind enough to rest. This was exactly the situation she’d sworn she wouldn’t get herself into, but yet she had anyway.

Emma was still under the influence of the spell she’d cast on her moons ago; at this point, she was too scared to lift the effects, scared Emma would hate her for it. She had no idea if Emma’s feelings were legitimate or a product of the spell. This wasn’t right.

But when Emma smiled at her the next day, she returned it, and she didn’t protest the gentle kiss they shared before they began the day.

It was only when she was sitting in her office staring out the window that she realized just how deep of a hole she’d allowed herself to fall into.

She had fallen in love with Emma Swan.

* * *

The earthquake came not ten minutes after Emma arrived at the sheriff’s station for her shift. It wasn’t very strong and didn’t even last a minute, but the tremors had no sooner faded than the phone started ringing, and Emma exchanged a wary look with both Riley and Graham.

They took turns answering the phone, sharing a box of doughnuts among them and wishing for a better way to get information out to the entire town than just telling people one by one.

By the time the phone finally stopped ringing, it was mid-morning, and Emma would have been okay with never answering that phone again for as long as she worked here. The problem hadn’t been the earthquake - it wasn’t anything incredibly unusual - but no one seemed to understand that none of them had built-in earthquake detectors and had no idea if another one was going to come.

“Finally,” Riley groaned after a full five minutes had passed without the phone ringing. All three of them sat back in their seats and just took the opportunity to relax. They’d been at this for well over an hour with barely a break; it was a relief to just sit still for a minute.

“An earthquake _is_ pretty odd for Maine,” Graham remarked, rubbing at his chin. Emma exchanged a look with Riley. Graham had seemed a little off ever since the earthquake had happened, spending his time between answering calls deep in thought.

“Still,” Emma said, standing up and stretching, back popping loudly several times as she did. “It’s not like a giant dragon appeared in town or something. It was just an earthquake; no need to start panicking.”

Riley gave her a wan smile and rolled her chair back to stretch her legs out. “That earthquake is probably the most interesting thing that has ever happened to some of these people. We are a small town in the middle of Maine, after all.”

Emma had to concede the point; she grunted and started to pace around the room, stretching her muscles where they had tensed from sitting in the same position for so long. She walked three laps before she noticed that Graham was still lost in his thoughts.

“Hey,” she said as she stopped in front of him. “You okay?”

“Hm?” Graham looked up at her, expression confused. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking. Do you think that the earthquake could have damaged something in town?”

Having moved around so much in her life, Emma had had more than her share of experiences with earthquakes, and this one hadn’t been anything like some of the others she’d felt in her life. “Maybe,” she said. “But anything that was damaged couldn’t have been too severe.”

Graham didn’t look comforted by her words, much to her irritation. He just hummed and returned to his thoughts, and Emma turned and resumed pacing again, rolling her eyes as she did. If anyone was going to know anything about earthquakes, it wasn’t the people who had lived here their entire lives. Riley, though, seemed to realize as much and smiled apologetically as Emma passed her.

/

When Regina’s phone rang in the middle of her interview with August to answer the people’s questions about the earlier earthquake, her initial response was to ignore it. If it was important, she would call them back after she was done with August.

But then she realized that it was her cell phone ringing instead of her office phone, and she stopped mid sentence and reached over to answer the call. Only a handful of people had her cell number, and none of them would call unless it was important.

August paused and looked up at her over the top of his notepad, brow furrowed at the abrupt ending to Regina’s sentence. Regina glanced up from Graham’s name on the screen of her cell phone and noticed his expression. She held up a finger and answered the call when he nodded and busied himself with the notes he’d already written.

“What is it, Graham?” she asked, standing up and turning to walk to the other side of the room, conscious that August was still sitting nearby. He may have better morals than Sidney, but he was still a reporter and Regina didn’t want the entire town knowing whatever Graham was calling about.

“I’m sorry to just call, but I wanted to ask your opinion on something.” He paused, likely to give her a chance to turn him down; she was silent and he continued after a moment. “About that earthquake this morning, I’ve had a really bad feeling about it since it happened, and I wanted to know if you think it’s worth checking that nothing happened because of it.”

Regina frowned. She hadn’t given the earthquake much thought, admittedly, but then again, she couldn’t tap into her magic in this world, which was how she’d always done things back in the Enchanted Forest. And Graham had always had good instincts, here and there. She’d trusted his feelings before they’d come to this world; that shouldn’t change now.

“Yes,” she finally said, and she heard Graham’s sigh of relief through the speaker. “Take Emma and Riley and sweep the forest. If something had happened in town, we would have heard about it by now. With the three of you, you should be able to cover all the ground you need to.”

“Okay.” There was a pause, then Graham said again, more confidently, “Okay. We’ll call you if we find anything out of the ordinary.”

“I hope I don’t hear from you then,” Regina replied dryly, and Graham laughed before saying goodbye and hanging up.

When she turned back to August, it was to find him watching her curiously, though he at least had the decency to look sheepish when she frowned disapprovingly at him for eavesdropping.

“Sorry,” he said with a small, embarrassed smile. He fiddled with his pen and almost sent it flying out of his fingers with how jerky his movements were. “Um, I’d be willing to help the Sheriff’s Office with their search if they need me. I can finish this article later; it won’t take long.”

Regina scrutinized him for a few seconds, weighing the pros and cons of August’s help. Yes, he was formerly one of her knights, but he didn’t owe her anything in this world. If she let him help, this could very well turn against her.

But.

“Very well,” she relented, reaching up to rub at her temples. She could feel a migraine beginning. Then she pointed a finger at August and said in a voice that booked no argument, “But should you find anything, I don’t want to read about it in the newspaper tomorrow. Is that understood, Mr. Booth?”

“Completely,” August said, his uneasy expression turning to something more brighter. He smiled at her and stood, quickly picking up his bag and stuffing his notepad inside. “Fair enough, Miss Mills. Anything I find you will hear from me personally.”

Regina nodded, and August thanked her before turning and breezing out of the room.

/

It took several minutes of convincing on August’s part to allow Graham to let him help search the woods. Riley was suspicious of why he wanted to help in the first place and once Emma found out that he was a reporter for the local newspaper, she couldn’t help but agree, but once Graham received a confirmation of August’s story by text message from Regina, he allowed August to join them.

Riley didn’t seem pleased but didn’t argue, but Emma had a hard time doing the same. Why had Regina allowed a reporter to help them search the woods? To prove that there was nothing out there or for some other reason?

Whatever the reason was, she had no power to argue, so she bit her tongue and watched as Graham divided the forest into equal parts for them to search.

She expected it would only take about two hours to completely cover the land she’d been assigned to search, but nevertheless, Emma wasn’t thrilled about doing so. An earthquake of that magnitude wouldn’t have been able to do more than rattle a few windows, but Regina had agreed with Graham that they should check so she didn’t really have much of a choice.

It was quiet as she walked through the woods, and the more she searched, the more she believed that this was a waste of time. What were they supposed to be looking for anyway?

By the time an hour had passed, Emma was moving on complete autopilot, weaving back and forth across her assigned area and only focusing on finding a safe place to set her feet lest she wind up knee-deep in a hole.

So distracted was she that she almost didn’t notice the gaping chasm before it was too late. She just happened to look up a few steps from the black hole and instantly began backpedaling frantically away from the sight in front of her.

She tripped on something in her haste to get away from the hole, and for a minute, she just laid there flat on her back in the middle of the forest and tried not to think about how close she’d come to falling.

Once her heart had stopped feeling like it was about to burst out of her chest, she sat up and carefully crawled over to the edge of the hole. She squinted down into the blackness, searching for the bottom, but found that she couldn’t see it, even with the added light from her cell phone.

Though she was afraid of the results, she picked up a nearby stone and dropped it into the hole, listening hard for the sound of it hitting the bottom.

For the next minute she heard nothing, and though she kept straining her ears to try and hear the thunk of the rock hitting the bottom of the hole, she knew that the sound wasn’t going to come.

The sight of this giant, gaping hole in the middle of the forest should have made her very uneasy, but instead, she felt nothing but calm, which was more unsettling than the fact that she felt no fear at all.

She shook herself and refocused on the chasm in front of her. That was what was important, not the fact that she wasn’t feeling frightened right now. She would have been told if this chasm had been here before today. Since she hadn’t, that could only mean that this hole had to have appeared today, and there was only one possible source.

This had to have been caused by the earthquake, yet even as she reached that conclusion, she couldn’t help but think how ridiculous of a theory it was. That earthquake had been nowhere strong enough to cause a rift like this one. But if it wasn’t the earthquake, what had caused this hole?

They had been told to contact Graham if they found anything out of the ordinary, but Emma hesitated before calling him. Something inside of her said to wait and tell Regina, to keep this a secret from her boss.

She just sat there for a few minutes, her finger hovering over the green button on her phone, before she made a decision and stood up and stuffed her phone into her back pocket. Her gut had saved her ass on more than a few occasions; there was no reason to start distrusting it now.

Carefully, she skirted the edge of the hole, noted its location for when she would undoubtedly need to return, and resumed her search.

/

None of the others had found anything out of the ordinary, or at least they weren’t _saying_ they’d found anything. Graham and Riley she knew would have said if they had seen something like what Emma had, but she wasn’t sure if August would. Today was the first time she’d ever met him, and as he was a reporter, she wasn’t inclined to fully trust him yet.

It was dark by the time they reported to Regina, and all Emma wanted to do was go home to the loft and forget about the gaping chasm in the middle of the forest. But she stood beside the others and shook her head when asked if she’d found anything suspicious.

Regina didn’t look surprised that they hadn’t found anything, but in the short time she’d known her, Emma had learned that Regina was adept at hiding her true feelings. If she was surprised, they would never know it.

“Thank you all for searching,” Regina said once they’d all reported. “Graham, I hope this puts your unease to rest.”

Graham did in fact look more at ease after hearing of nothing out of the ordinary, and he smiled and nodded at Regina before taking his leave, Riley and August behind him. They only spared Emma a passing glance as they left and thankfully either don’t notice or didn’t question why she was lingering. Maybe they thought she wanted to ask something about Henry.

Whatever they thought, it relieved some of the nerves Emma was feeling. That was one less awkward question to answer; now she only had to explain why she’d kept her knowledge secret from her coworkers.

August pulled the door closed behind him, and once she heard it click shut, Emma turned back to Regina to find her watching her with unguarded curiosity.

“What is it, Miss Swan?” Regina asked. She was giving Emma a look that made her think that Regina suspected she knew exactly what she was going to say.

Emma shifted on her feet, feeling guilty for keeping things from her boss, especially when he had been the one who had initiated the search in the first place, worried about finding something like this. But something was telling her to go to Regina instead of Graham, and she was already here and might as well keep going.

“When I was searching my area of the forest, I came across this giant hole in the ground. I dropped a rock into it, and even though I sat there for a solid minute, I never heard it hit the bottom. And when I shined my phone’s light, I couldn’t see the bottom either.”

Regina leaned forward on her elbows, a pensive expression on her face. She didn’t say anything for a while, and Emma followed suit, looking around for something to focus on aside from Regina’s face.

Finally, Regina sat up. She didn’t ask why Emma hadn’t told Graham about the hole, didn’t ask why she’d only told her instead, just stood up from behind her desk and, without an ounce of surprise, said in a tense voice, “Show me.”

/

It took almost an hour of hiking to reach the site of the hole, and it was almost completely dark by the time they finally reached it, both of them holding their phones up for light. The two of them stopped at the edge of the clearing for a moment before Regina slowly stepped forward, her shoulders stiff.

Emma didn’t hesitate to follow her; she was only a half-step behind as Regina approached the gaping chasm, nervous at the thought of her getting to close. She forcefully pushed aside the thought of Regina losing her balance and falling and focused instead on keeping her own footing.

Like Emma had done earlier, Regina dropped a small rock over the edge of the hole and listened, and once again, Emma never heard the sound of it hitting the bottom. After almost a full minute, Regina looked away from the hole to Emma with a deep frown.

“Come out here when you can tomorrow and wrap police tape around this clearing just in case someone happens to come across this. I’m not sure what it is, but it can’t be anything good. It’s best to just leave it be.”

The idea of just leaving this seemingly bottomless hole alone without any attempts to figure it out sounded like a bad idea to Emma, but the serious expression on Regina’s face and the terse way she’d been acting since first hearing about the hole made Emma willing to let it slide.

“Okay,” she said, and she almost missed the look of relief on Regina’s face.


	5. Chapter 5

Emma could tell from the faces of the scouts when they raced through the gates that whatever news they brought was nothing good.

“The Summerlands are under attack!” one of the scouts cried. “We saw a large armed group crossing the border, but we couldn’t see who was leading them.”

Soldiers had already begun to gather around them, and Emma ignored the ones that asked what they were going to do as she pushed through them and entered the castle. The hallways were filled with people; no doubt someone had heard the scout and word was now spreading through the castle like wildfire.

Emma burst into Regina’s office, and Regina only looked surprised for a moment before she asked, “What happened?”

“The Summerlands. They’re being attacked; the scouts couldn’t see by who, but I think we can safely guess.”

“Rumplestiltskin,” Regina growled. She looked at Emma, jaw set, and said, “Take as many soldiers as we safely can. If you need to, focus on getting as many people out alive as you can; survival is the priority, especially the royal family.”

Emma nodded and saluted, but as she turned to the door, she heard the sound of a chair scraping the floor. Regina had stood up and was rounding the desk, and Emma turned and took a step forward just as Regina hugged her.

“Come back safe,” she murmured, and Emma nodded into her shoulder.

“Of course.”

Regina pulled back and kissed her achingly softly, and for a moment, they were all that existed in the world. But they had to part, and when they did, Emma kissed Regina briefly on the forehead and smiled at her.

“I’ll be back soon,” she promised, then turned and left.

/

The castle had already been breached by the time they arrived, and Emma swore and pushed Rusty hard over the threshold, leaving some of her soldiers outside to try and evacuate as many as they could.

Bodies already littered the grounds within the walls, and it was obvious who was winning. “Aid the Summerland soldiers!” she ordered her men, and they quickly scattered, swords drawn.

Emma drew her own sword and slashed at a soldier that had charged her. The blade sliced easily through him, and he collapsed to the ground. Something was wrong, however, and Emma’s stomach sank as she realized what.

The soldiers weren’t bleeding. They weren’t soldiers.

“They aren’t human,” she managed to say, and the soldiers that were closest to her turned to her in shock. On closer inspection, the enemies looked as if they had already died once; some were missing arms or had large, gaping holes in their chest. “They’re undead.”

Regina had told her some of magic in the past few weeks. There was dark and light, and she knew Regina’s fell somewhere on the light side now after many years of being dark. This was dark, horribly dark. It would have to be to bring the dead back.

She had no doubt now that it was Rumplestiltskin who was attacking. He must have finally discovered the fairies’ lie and decided to recover his lost servant.

“Mulan, Pinocchio!” she yelled, and immediately, the two were at her side, swords raised and felling any enemy that stumbled within their range.

“We cannot hope to defeat them,” Pinocchio said after cutting off the head of an undead. It rolled away and stopped at the feet of another under, who paused and stared at it before lifting it and throwing it back at them.

Emma ducked away from the flying skull, her stomach twisting unpleasantly at the sight. “I know. You two need to get into the castle and find the royal family and Belle French. Find them horses and get them safely away. I’ll call a retreat once you have.”

They nodded and then were gone, and Emma turned her attention back to fighting off the group of five undead that had charged her.

The undead were almost impossible to defeat, only falling when their heads were cut off or they were split into enough parts that they couldn’t move anymore. As well, as soon as one was defeated, two more took its place.

There was no way they would ever win this fight; the odds were just stacked too high against them.

Her horse was cut out from under her, and she went sprawling to the ground, her shoulder smashing painfully into the stone. She clutched at it but quickly stood, trying to ignore the pain as she raised her sword again.

Except it wasn’t one of the undead standing before her. It was a man, and he was giggling faintly and twitching. His skin was a pale yellow color, and his hair was scraggly around his face.

And Emma had no doubt who he was. Rumpelstiltskin was before her, eyes flashing with something she felt she shouldn’t try to identify.

He leered at her and giggled when she gripped her sword with both hands. “Now, now, dearie. Must we so quickly jump to violence?”

She lunged with her sword, but Rumplestiltskin just twisted out of the way like she’d been moving at the pace of a snail. He tutted at her and easily dodged her second strike as well.

“Nice try! But now it’s my turn!”

In the blink of an eye, he was standing with his feet on her boots, unusually heavy and holding her in place, and there was a great burst of pain from her stomach. Rumplestiltskin gave a twisted smile and jerked his arm, and the dagger he’d slid between her ribs twisted painfully.

“That’s what you get for crossing the Dark One, dearie. And rest assured, the same will be coming to your precious Queen Regina as well.”

And with a cackle, he was gone, and with him, the rest of Emma’s strength.

Her legs gave out, and she fell forward to the ground and pressed her hands to her stomach. The dagger Rumpelstiltskin had stabbed her with was gone, and she could feel the blood rushing from the wound despite her attempts to staunch the flow with her hands.

She was going to die here, she realized suddenly. She was going to bleed out, and no one was going to know who killed her.

Black was beginning to crowd in at the edge of her vision, and slowly, the sounds of the battle raging around her began to fade.

Suddenly, it felt like something that had been pressing on her brain was removed. The feeling was unlike anything she’s ever felt before, and she smiled weakly as she realized what it was, as if the answer was completely obvious.

When she’d first met Regina and had turned down the offer of becoming her guard, Regina had cast a spell on her to convince her, and it had been there ever since, not interfering but still lingering in her mind.

And yet, without the spell over her, the thought of Regina still made her stomach twist in a way that wasn’t altogether unpleasant. In fact, it felt even stronger now, as if the spell had been stifling her feelings.

Emma Swan died loving Regina.

/

It felt like she’d been trampled by a horse.

Regina gasped at the sudden explosion of pain in her chest and doubled over, feeling as if she was going to be sick.

“H-hey!” she heard someone exclaim, and it took her brain a moment to realize it was Red, but she couldn’t find the strength to lift her head or even respond.

The rest of her strength left her, and she fell forward and collided with Red, who grunted but supported her limp form. Red carefully laid her on the ground, and her worried face swam into Regina’s hazy vision.

“What happened?” she asked, but Regina just shook her head weakly.

She’d never felt pain like this before, even when she’d seen her father’s body. This was something on an entirely different level, and even though she didn’t want to accept it, she knew what was causing the sudden pain.

A black wave collapsed over her, and she fainted.

* * *

The next week passed without further incident, though Emma did hear of Regina asking people if they’d had anything damaged because of the earthquake and wondered if this was Regina’s subtle way of trying to determine the cause of the hole.

But surely it wasn’t the work of a person? It was physically impossible for someone to have created a hole that apparently didn’t have a bottom. But then why was Regina asking around? What did she expect to find?

However, what Regina was doing suddenly became the least of her worries when her roommate began leaving before Emma woke up in the morning and coming home later. Emma, of course, asked what she was doing and quickly became suspicious when Mary Margaret couldn’t come up with an answer to her question, instead nervously excusing herself with some ridiculous excuse and vanishing.

Eventually, after two weeks of eating breakfast without Mary Margaret, whether at the diner or the loft, she gave up on questioning Mary Margaret and posed her question to Ruby instead, who was always a reliable source of information.

Well, more like a reliable source of rumors that often ended up being correct.

Ruby didn’t disappoint, and that’s how Emma found out that Mary Margaret had been having breakfast with David Nolan every morning, a fact which Ruby could confirm herself, and supposedly spending their time after work together, walking the trails on the edge of town.

“David was injured pretty badly once a long time ago,” Ruby told her as she filled coffee orders. “Daily walks help to keep him from hurting too badly, and apparently Mary Margaret has taken to joining him. It’s pretty nauseating, actually; they always make googly eyes at each other over their breakfast.”

She grimaced and made gagging noises, but Emma - aggravated that Mary Margaret was still pursuing David and was obviously unwilling to admit it - only laughed when Dawn breezed back and tossed airily over her shoulder at Ruby, “You’re only saying that because Caitlyn’s more interested in her books than you.”

Ruby flushed a deep crimson and ignored Dawn, instead glaring at Emma until she stopped snickering, and that was the end of that conversation.

/

The sun had almost set by the time Emma entered the loft, and Mary Margaret was sitting on the couch in front of the television. Emma eyed her warily as she pulled her boots off, hopping on one foot and almost losing her balance as she tried to come up with a way to broach the subject of David Nolan.

Somehow she managed to get both of her boots off without faceplanting onto the floor, yet she still hadn’t thought of a way to begin what was likely going to be a horribly awkward conversation, on her part for sure.

So instead of trying to be clever, she just dove in headfirst. “So,” she said, crossing the room to sit beside Mary Margaret, “How was your walk with David this afternoon?”

The reaction was instantaneous: Mary Margaret choked on the glass of coke she’d drinking and began coughing loudly, wide eyes turning on Emma, who winced at the bout of coughing she’d accidentally induced.

Between coughs, Mary Margaret managed to asked, “How did you find out?” It was hard to tell, but Emma was fairly sure that Mary Margaret was beginning to panic. Her coughing had abated, but her wide eyes didn’t.

“Who do you think?” Emma replied dryly, then sobered. “What are you doing, Mary Margaret? You know he’s married.”

“I-I know,” Mary Margaret sputtered, and she was even paler than usual. “It’s not like that. We’re just friends. I ran into him after school one day and accompanied him on a walk. It just,” she paused, waving her hands as she thought, “kept happening.”

Emma raised an eyebrow at her. “You just happened to run into him every day for the past week?”

“Um, well, no. I just-” She stopped and twisted her hands together in her lap, and it soon became readily apparent that she wasn’t ever going to finish that sentence. “I don’t know what to do,” Mary Margaret whined after a full minute of silence, and Emma sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

“Okay,” she said with more than a hint of resignation. If she heard it, Mary Margaret gave no indication. “Okay. I’ll go and talk to David tomorrow and see if I can’t straighten this mess out somewhat.”

She wasn’t looking forward to doing so, but it was obvious that Mary Margaret wasn’t going to do anything to get herself out of this potentially disastrous situation. Maybe it would be easier for a third party to work things out.

When she looked up and met Mary Margaret’s eyes, the relief and gratefulness she saw there was enough of a motivator to go and talk with David.

/

By the time her lunch break arrived, Emma had rehearsed what she was going to say to David at least fifty times. She was going to march in and demand to know why he was carrying on what could almost be constituted as an affair with Mary Margaret.

But she wasn’t surprised when she stepped through the door into the animal shelter and the words died in her throat when she saw David sitting at a table in the corner with an armful of wriggling puppies.

Emma sighed and ran a hand through her hair. She took a moment to steel herself for what she was about to do and then she forced herself to smile and approach David.

He smiled when he saw her, and the puppies began yipping and squirming even more, tongues lolling happily as they batted their paws against David’s arms and struggled to escape his grip. Apparently one person’s attention wasn’t enough for them.

David apologized as he began trying to reign in the puppies, but it was a hopeless battle and one of them quickly escaped and tumbled over and onto the floor.

“I’m sorry,” David said again, leaning down and reaching for the puppy, which easily scampered out of his reach and began sniffing curiously at Emma’s boots instead.

“It’s fine,” Emma told him. “Honestly,” she added when David still looked worried. To prove her point, she squatted down and began rubbing at the first puppy’s head, and he immediately lost interest in her shoes and began nuzzling against her hand.

It felt easier to speak with the distraction of puppies between them, so Emma easily picked up the small puppy and sat down next to David and rubbed at the puppy’s belly as she spoke.

“I talked to Mary Margaret last night,” she began, and instantly, David stiffened and looked at her with a wary expression. “Relax, I’m not here to arrest you or anything. I just want to talk.”

David gave a weak half-smile that was more like a grimace. “Okay,” he said slowly, as if he was regretting the word but had realized he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. This conversation was happening whether he wanted it to or not.

The puppies in David’s lap squirmed and whined, picking up on his sudden uncomfortableness, and he blinked and shook himself out of the stupor he’d fallen into and comforted the dogs with scratches.

“I’m not judging,” Emma began hesitantly, watching David’s face closely. “Trust me, I’m the last person that should be judging someone for their life decisions. I’m just wondering if you realize the ramifications or what you’re doing. In any other situation, what you and Mary Margaret are doing would be considered a pretty serious relationship.

“I just want to make sure you’re thinking this through,” Emma added quietly, absently scratching behind the ears of the puppy in her lap.

David kept his eyes on the small pile of puppies in his lap, rubbing at their heads and letting them lick his fingers. He sat there for a full minute, a far off look in his eyes, and Emma tapped her fingers against her thighs and tried to be patient.

Finally, David let out a sigh that made him sound twice his age, and he sat back in his chair and lifted his hands and rubbed them over his face. “I know,” he said, voice breaking on the second word. “I know. I have no idea what I’m doing.”

It made Emma uncomfortable, seeing David breaking, like she was intruding on something private. She wasn’t good with stuff like this; she shifted on her seat and almost dislodged the puppy.

“I love my wife,” David said, the words pouring out of his mouth like he’d been holding them back for a long time. “I do. We’ve been friends since college, it seemed obvious to get married. But what I feel for Mary Margaret, is-is different.”

He rubbed at his eyes and when he lowered his hand, he looked exhausted. “I don’t know what to do,” he said, voice small and looking at Emma for an answer.

Emma sighed. “Listen, I’m not going to tell you what to do. I can’t make that decision for you. But I do know you can’t stay like this, with both of these women; it’s unfair to them. You need to choose one.”

“Okay. Okay.” David gave a bobble-headed nod and then lifted his head and smiled slightly at Emma. “Thank you, Emma.”

“Yeah.” Emma returned the grimace with one of her own. She was really out of her depth here, and she wondered if she’d just made everything much worse than it had already been. “You’re welcome, I guess.”

The puppy she was holding licked comfortingly at her hand.

* * *

Pinocchio helped the queen onto her horse as Mulan untied the reigns of the three horses from the post they’d found when trying to get inside the castle. Once she had, she turned to see that Belle had already mounted Pinocchio’s horse.

Aurora, however, was staring at the horses as if she’d never seen them before in their life, and Mulan cursed because they really didn’t have time for this. She stepped over to her own horse and held out a hand to Aurora, who hesitated for a moment before taking it.

Once Aurora was on the horse, Mulan quickly climbed into the saddle and kicked her horse into motion. She felt Aurora throw her arms around her waist, likely startled by the sudden movement.

As she directed her horse toward the exit, she heard Pinocchio whistle behind her and call for retreat. Immediately, soldiers began turning and fleeing, and Mulan had to slow to stop from trampling them.

Once they’d left the castle grounds, she could see Remus at the front of the crowd leading the way, and she urged her horse faster to catch up with him.

Remus didn’t say anything when she slowed to ride beside him, just looked relieved and nodded respectfully at Aurora, who was still gripping Mulan tightly. Mulan was beginning to think the princess hadn’t been on too many horses in her life.

They rode in silence for almost an hour before there was the sound of hooves, and Killian reached them. He seemed fine upon first glance, but as he approached, Mulan realized he was deathly pale. She had just opened her mouth to ask what was wrong when she saw the body lying against his back.

“Emma!” she cried. “Is she hurt?”

Killian opened his mouth, shut it, swallowed, and opened it again. “She–” He lifted an arm and rubbed at his face. “Someone stabbed her. She–”

He couldn’t finish the sentence, but he didn’t need to. They knew what had happened.

/

It looked like half the town was waiting for them to return, which only made the fact that he had Emma’s body behind him even worse. He couldn’t look at them as they passed through town, just tightened his grip on Emma’s hand – it was cold now – and urged his horse faster.

He was the first one to enter the courtyard, closely followed by the other three remaining guards. None of them said a word as they dismounted their horses and allowed the stable hands to lead them away.

Red rushed out of the castle as they approached, smiling, but she stopped dead in her tracks and opened her mouth. She looked confused for a few seconds until her eyes fell on Emma, and she made a strangled sound that Killian recalled hearing Romulus make when they’d come across a dead wolf in the forest one day.

“Bring her inside,” Red said quietly, and Killian followed her, Emma cradled in his arms.

As they passed, he could feel people watching them, but he ignored them and hunched forward to try and shield Emma’s body from their curious eyes. He didn’t want her to be gossiped about before they’d even told the queen.

The queen. What were they supposed to say to her? She and Emma were – had been – so close; the news would destroy her.

But it had to be done, and Killian felt obligated to do it himself. So after he’d laid Emma’s body on the bed in the room Red had led them too, he slipped back into the hallway and made his way up to Regina’s office in a daze.

Once she’d called for him to enter, he took a deep breath and opened the door, and when his eyes fell on the queen, he could tell he was confirming her suspicions. She somehow knew what had happened, and she knew by him coming to speak with her that something was wrong with Emma.

Killian dropped his gaze, unable to meet hers, and fell to one knee in the middle of the room, a hand pressed again his heart. “Your Majesty,” he began, his voice thick. He cleared his throat. “We recovered the royal family and Princess Belle, but E-Emma, she was felled in battle. She was gone when I found her.”

For a long moment, everything was silent. Killian braced himself for whatever might come, and when he heard a choked sob, he quickly stood up and crossed the room to where Regina was leaning against her desk and pulled her against him.

She buried her face in his chest, heedless of the ichor there, and he set his chin on top of her head and rubbed her back soothingly. He lasted almost a full minute before he couldn’t hold his own tears back.

* * *

Over the next few weeks, Emma made a point to not act like she was keeping an eye on Mary Margaret. She’d invaded her privacy enough; she didn’t want to come off like she was still doing so, wondering what decision David had made, if he’d even made it yet.

So she tried to stay out of the apartment as much as she could, keeping Ruby company until the diner closed and staying with Henry after she got off work on the days that Regina worked late.

On one of her few days off, she decided to surprise Henry by meeting him at school to walk him home and arrived to find him sitting on one of the benches in front of the school with the book of fairytales open in front of him and Devlin Jackson sitting next to him staring enraptured at the book over his shoulder.

She frowned. What was Devlin doing at an elementary school in the middle of the day, much less sitting with Henry and apparently deep in conversation about a book of fairytales? Was he drunk this early?

As she approached, she could hear Henry speaking rapidly, likely about one of the stories in his book, and Devlin nodded along, not looking at all like he was faking interest, which raised more warning flags in Emma’s mind.

“Hey,” she called, and Henry’s face appeared over the top of the book, beaming, and Devlin looked up and gave her a lopsided smirk. “What’re you doing here, Devlin?”

There was a bit of ice in her voice, and Devlin seemed to pick up on it quickly. Not drunk then. “I was on my way back from the docks, and he was just sitting here all by himself with his nose deep in this book.” He waved a hand at the book of fairytales. “So I thought I’d keep him company until someone picked him up - didn’t think it’d be you, though - but this book’s a lot more interesting than I thought it’d be.”

Emma stopped herself from frowning and glanced at Henry, who had buried himself in his book once more. She wondered just how much Henry had told him, whether he’d gone into his whole theory about the town. If he had, she was impressed Devlin was still sitting here, and looking interested at that.

“He told me all about this theory he has,” Devlin continued cheerfully, and Emma tried and failed to withhold a grimace. “You know about it then. It’s pretty interesting, so I asked him who he thought I was and he let me read the story.”

“Who are you, then?” Emma asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

Devlin grinned at her. “Killian Jones, former pirate and part of the Evil Queen’s queensguard. One of the strongest, apparently.”

“Not very bright, though,” Henry said quietly, and Devlin just laughed, which made Henry smile.

“Then I asked about the others, and he showed me some of them. They’re pretty interesting, and Henry’s got ‘em matched up with the people here pretty well. Did you know Ruby’s a werewolf?”

He was still grinning like an idiot, and Emma just rolled her eyes. She didn’t argue though, because Henry looked positively thrilled to have found someone who actually believed - or acted like he believed - his fairytale theory, and she wasn’t about to crush him again, not after the disaster that had occurred last time.

Devlin as a knight didn’t really sound like it fit to Emma - sounded more like wishful thinking on Devlin’s part - but she stepped around to the back of the bench and looked over Henry’s shoulder at the story of Killian Jones.

It was the first time she’d seen one of the stories, she realized as she looked at the picture covering the entire right page. The story wasn’t just about Killian, either. There were four more, all part of the Evil Queen’s queensguard.

She could see how Henry got his theory as she looks at the drawing. Killian, with his charming smile and relaxed body language next to the rigidness of the other four, did strike a remarkable similarity to Devlin, who was still grinning smugly.

The other knights seemed somewhat familiar, too, as she looked them over, though it was difficult to place them as someone in Storybrooke without some sort of prompting, but it wasn’t until her eyes landed on the final knight that she recalled who Henry thought _she_ was in this book.

She hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, that she was supposed to be the head knight, the second-in-command under the Evil Queen, but standing here looking at the blonde knight in the picture, named Knight Emma Swan by the caption, she finally understood Henry’s insistence about the truth of his theory.

As if the name wasn’t enough, Knight Swan in the picture, like Killian and Devlin, bore a striking resemblance to herself. It was creepy to look at, honestly.

Her head burst into pain, and she gritted her teeth and reached a hand up to press against her forehead. It was intense, almost making her sick, and she felt like she was grinding her teeth down to nothing.

Henry flipped a page, unaware of Emma hunched over in pain behind him, and the pain in Emma’s head redoubled at the close-up drawing of the Evil Queen. She blinked, and for a moment, thought she was looking at a picture of Regina. The resemblance was more than a little disconcerting.

A wave of nausea passed over her, and she had to sit down on the edge of the bench so she wouldn’t fall over. Devlin set a hand on her shoulder and said something, but she weakly waved him away.

It felt like forever before the nausea passed, but finally Emma lifted her head and rubbed a hand over her face. She was sweating, she found, her hair sticking to her forehead with it.

“What happened?” she heard Devlin ask, quickly followed by Henry asking, “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” Emma said, though she was doubting that she actually was. “I don’t know what it was, but I think I’m okay now.”

The concern on Henry’s face faded, and he smiled at her again, standing up and gathering his book up under his arm. Emma stood up as well, slower in case the nausea returned, but nothing happened.

Devlin smiled at her, though he still looked concerned, and then he stood up as well and bid them farewell before turning and strolling off down the sidewalk.

As she walked with Henry, Emma wondered what exactly had caused the sudden nausea she’d felt. She’d felt completely normal all day; the only thing that could have been a trigger was the book and the pictures she’d seen, but that was completely ridiculous. How could a couple of pictures of people Henry thought _were_ her, Regina, and Devlin have almost made her black out? It didn’t make any sense.

But then again, she mused, glancing down at Henry walking beside her, smile on his face, a lot of things around here didn’t make any sense.

/

At her hesitant question, Henry cheerily lent her his book for her to look at, likely thrilled that she finally seemed to be beginning to believe him about his theory. She’d just smiled at him but done nothing else to indicate whether she actually did or not. At first, she’d been stalwartly against the idea, but now, with things not adding up quite like they were supposed to, she was beginning to question if Henry wasn’t onto something.

Several times, she sat down with the book, fully prepared to open it and read one of the stories, only to stop with her fingers on the cover, suddenly terrified of what she would find inside, if it would make her sick again. Every time, she’d end up not even opening the book, just leaving it there and promising herself she’d look at it later.

Except later never seemed to come, because she’d tried to read the book about five times, only to chicken out each time. Eventually, she just ended up stuffing the book under her bed and trying to forget about it, though that seemed impossible.

On her way to work one morning, clutching a cup of coffee, still half-asleep, and angry at Storybrooke’s gloomy weather for making her ache from her old gunshot wound, she almost bumped into Mr. Gold, owner of the pawn shop in town. Only his cane bumping into her ankle in warning stopped her from running him over.

She took a few hurried steps back, sputtering an apology, but Gold was smiling when she looked at him. Though she’d been in town a few months at this point, she hadn’t seen much of Gold. He tended to keep to himself, and there hadn’t been much reason to visit his shop.

“It’s fine, dear,” Gold said, still smiling at her. “How are you?” he asked, as if they talked like this on a regular basis.

“I’m okay,” Emma replied, somewhat hesitantly. She’d heard from more than a few people that Gold always seemed to have an agenda, and she was wondering if he did now, what it could be.

“Good, good.” Gold shifted his weight on his cane and looked at her, his eyes seeming to gleam as he watched her, like he could tell exactly what she was thinking. “You haven’t read little Henry’s book yet, then?” he asked, and Emma blinked and frowned at him, but when she opened her mouth to ask what he was talking about, he continued as if she hadn’t tried to speak. “Because, of course, if you had, you definitely be on your way to work like normal.”

Emma’s frown deepened, and warning bells went off in her head. Something was very wrong here, only she didn’t know exactly what. “What do you mean?” she asked sharply, narrowing her eyes at Gold and trying to ascertain what, exactly, he knew that she didn’t. “Why wouldn’t I?”

But Gold just smiled enigmatically at her and turned and walked off down the sidewalk, leaving her behind with her heart beating hard and fast in her chest and wondering if reading Henry’s book was actually a good idea or not.

/

She was useless at work that day, too distracted by the book of fairytales carelessly stuffed underneath her bed at home and Gold’s words that morning. Had he been right? Would reading the book put her into turmoil? And if it would, how did _he_ know?

So she was relieved to leave when her shift ended and grateful she wasn’t on call that night, and she took her time getting home, stopping for dinner at the diner and lingering even though Ruby was off that night, because she knew it would be harder to resist the book when she was home.

The apartment was empty when she finally got there, and Emma wasn’t sure if she was happy about that fact or not. On one hand, maybe Mary Margaret could distract her from what had been on her mind all day, but then again, Graham and Riley hadn’t been able to all day.

She only lasted five full minutes sitting on the couch before she took the stairs two at a time and burst into her bedroom. After resisting all day, she didn’t even take the book downstairs, just sat down on the edge of her bed and finally opened to the first page.

Knight Swan’s story was toward the end of the book, and though she was curious about the rest of the stories, she was more interested in the story of the knight who was supposed to be her.

It was slow, reading the story. She’d never been properly taught how to read, had hated it most of her life, and taking the time to absorb everything was only making it slower. She slogged her way through the tale of Knight Swan growing up on a farm and then being recruited by the Evil Queen to her queensguard not long after she turned seventeen, of the queen persuading her to join with a spell and Knight Swan leaving her parents to serve her.

The story went on to say that Knight Swan quickly became the queen’s favorite knight and then her lover, and it was uncomfortable for Emma to look at the picture of Knight Swan standing at the Evil Queen’s side in court because of just how much the faces in the picture resembled her own and Regina’s.

In fact, all of the pictures were hard to look at, only in part because of the headaches they induced. They weren’t as strong as the one she’d had the first time, but they still made her pause in her reading and down a couple of ibuprofen.

When she finished, she was sitting on the kitchen counter, book in her lap, and as she read the final paragraph, the urge to vomit rose quickly in her throat. She almost didn’t make it to the bathroom before she did, and afterward, she pressed her forehead against the wall - grateful for its cool temperature - and just tried not to think for a few minutes.

She took several deep breaths and tried to calm the frantic beating of her heart, closing her eyes and fighting the urge to throw up again. Her hands went to her stomach, pressing against where she knew the scar was, and she took a deep, shuddering breath.

Knight Swan had _died_. She’d been stabbed with a knife by Rumplestiltskin and died on a battlefield, had been stabbed in the _stomach_ , in the exact spot where Emma had been shot years ago.

And there were only so many coincidences she could handle before even she started believing, and this was the final straw. But if she was Knight Swan, how was she alive? Knight Swan had died, the book had said so, so how could Henry believe that Emma was this knight, if she was still up and walking around and clearly _not dead_?

She jerked upright suddenly and leaned over the toilet bowl again.

* * *

The funeral was held a few days later, and most of them couldn’t manage a word. The sun was shining brightly, but to them, it felt as if a storm was raging and rain was soaking them.

She was buried alongside Regina’s father Henry behind the castle. Her parents had been escorted to the castle by Remus and Mulan and after speaking with Regina, they had agreed to bury her with Regina’s family.

After the funeral ended and most of the people left, the rest of the guard and Red stayed with Emma’s parents and Regina and just stood there for a while. At their feet, Romulus laid with his nose against the gravestone, and when clouds gathered and it rained, they stayed there for a while longer.

* * *

As she couldn’t walk through walls - and she had definitely tried - Emma had to concede that she wasn’t _actually_ dead, which shouldn’t have been as comforting to learn as it actually was, Emma decided to speak with Henry the next day and ask him to explain his theory.

She skipped work for a while to meet him at school when it let out for the day, and Henry frowned at her for only a few seconds before beaming and hurrying over to her.

“Hi,” he chirped. “Why are you here today? Don’t you have work?” His eyes dropped to the book she had resting against her hip, and he looked back up at her, expression brimming with excitement. “Did you read it?” he asked loudly.

“Yeah, kid, that’s why I’m here,” Emma said, and Henry’s smile faded slightly at the terseness in her voice.

She guided him to a nearby bench and sat down, fingers tapping at the cover of the book on her lap. Henry looked at her impatiently, eagerly waiting for her to speak, and she stared down at the book and tried to think of a tactful way to phrase her question.

“Um, I read Knight Swan’s story,” she began slowly, and Henry’s face lit up brightly. Emma continued on, ignoring the hopeful look on his face. “You think I’m her, right?” Henry nodded quickly. “But she _died_.”

Emma stressed the last word in an attempt to get her point across, and Henry frowned. “Did you read the entire book or just that story?” he asked, and Emma blinked at him, caught off guard.

“Just the one,” she replied. “Why?”

Henry sighed at her like _she_ was the kid here and grabbed the book from her hands, flipping through the pages with a practiced ease. For several seconds, Emma just watched him uneasily until he stopped on a page and shoved the book back at her.

“Read it,” he said exasperatedly, as if she should have read his mind and known she was supposed to read the _entire damn book_.

She resisted the urge to give him a dirty look and obediently shifted so she could read the page Henry had stopped at. Impatient, she just skimmed, and when she’d finished, she frowned and stared at the page, trying to make sense of it.

In the end, she just turned back to Henry, who was giving her a look that looked straight off of his mother’s face. The resemblance was uncanny. Unlike his mother, however, he didn’t say anything biting, just sighed and began to explain.

“Because the Evil Queen was in love with Knight Swan, her death made her really sad. She became angry and spent a lot of her time alone, and then Rumplestiltskin appeared and gave her a curse that would give the caster their happy ending. The Evil Queen cast it, and boom, Storybrooke was created.”

Emma looked back at the book, her mind spinning, and noticed that there was no town in Maine mentioned there. Henry must have added that, then. “But if I am Knight Swan, how am I alive? She definitely died, right?”

“Yeah.” Henry nodded firmly. “But the spell was created to give only the person that cast it a happy ending, and since Knight Swan _was_ the Evil Queen’s happy ending, the curse brought you back to life.”

He looked so sure of his theory that Emma dropped her eyes to the page and read through again, slower this time to make sure she absorbed all of it. It took several minutes, and beside her, Henry waited, shifting slightly every now and then and obviously impatient for her to finish.

Eventually, she did and realized that everything Henry had said made sense in the context of the story. It wasn’t very real-sounding, but if they really were from a world with magic, then everything was logical.

Except there _was_ no such thing as magic, and her head just really hurt now.

She rubbed at her temples, trying to ward off the impending headache. They were really starting to get irritating now, when she apparently couldn’t do anything without her head hurting.

It was easy to see the next logical question she should ask, and she could tell from the glowing look on Henry’s face that he knew what it was too. He was waiting for her to ask it, so she sighed again and gave in.

“Okay, so if I _am_ Knight Swan, what do I need to do to break this curse?”

Henry beamed at her and turned his attention back to the book, quickly flipping through the pages before settling on the one with the picture of Knight Swan and the Evil Queen side by side. “True Love’s kiss,” he said, jabbing a finger at the picture. “It’s the only thing that will break any curse, and since everyone here is under the effects of the curse and can’t get their happy ending while it’s still here, you have to be the one to break it. You weren’t brought to Storybrooke by the curse, so it has to be you! You’re the Savior who will break the curse!”

“And since I’m Knight Swan,” Emma swallowed thickly, “I need to kiss the Evil Queen. Your mom.”

She glanced sideways at Henry to see him nod firmly once, his eyes wide and gleaming with excitement, and Emma felt like her stomach had dropped out the bottom at the very thought of kissing Regina, True Love or no.

Before now, she’d never bought in to all that True Love crap. Being abandoned by your parents as an infant and living without a proper home for over ten years would do that to anyone. But if this curse was real, then her parents hadn’t abandoned her, and they’d raised her until Regina had come and taken her away.

And if nothing else, the motivation for a family was enough to try. Her memories of being alone her entire life weren’t something she was jumping to reminisce about.

But the prospect of just walking up to Regina and kissing her was enough to make her second-guess this plan. The thought of it made it feel like she was about to be sick, but it also sent a warm feeling crawling up her spine.

The idea to just refuse to try and break this curse crossed her mind, and for a moment, she considered doing so, turning her back on this idea and laughing it off, saying that the idea of them all being under a magical curse was ridiculous and just go back to her life, here or somewhere else. She’d moved plenty of times before this - or at least, she thought she had.

She shook her head to clear her mind and turned to look at Henry, and his face was so full of hope that she knew she couldn’t just leave this alone, she had to try. The thought of Henry looking at her with so much disappointment made her feel guilty.

“Okay,” she finally said, forcing a smile and reaching out to ruffle Henry’s hair. “I’ll think about it, kid.”

It wasn’t an agreement, but Henry beamed like he had the day after she’d come to Storybrooke when she’d had to hunt him down, like she really was the brave knight come to save the town, and leaned over and hugged her tight around the middle.


	6. Chapter 6

The idea of barging straight into Regina’s office in the middle of the day was terrifying to her, so instead, Emma found herself at the diner, flopped across the bar and wondering when her life had become so absolutely ridiculous.

“What happened to you?”

Emma just groaned, confident that would convey what she wanted it to, and in response, she heard Ruby laugh, then tap her fingers against the back of her head. Reluctantly, Emma lifted her head.

“Henry,” she said as an answer, and Ruby gave her an understanding look and set a mug of hot chocolate in front of her.

“Okay,” Ruby said, rounding the counter and taking a seat beside Emma. “So is it Henry’s mother or the fairy tale thing making you look like roadkill?”

Emma frowned and paused before taking a drink, slowly lowering her cup back to the countertop. “You know about his theory?” It wasn’t much of decision to ignore the remark about Regina, especially considering recent experience.

“Please,” Ruby said, rolling her eyes with a dry snort. “I know everything that goes on in this town, remember?”

In Emma’s defense, she was having a whirlwind of a week. It was easy to forget things when confronted with the idea of being a _dead_ knight. She sighed and reached a hand up to rub at her temples.

“It’s a fairy tale problem,” she finally said, and when she turned to see Ruby watching her expectantly, she reluctantly continued. “Do you know the story about Knight Swan?”

Ruby shook her head. “No, but Henry’s mentioned them before, I think.” She paused and regarded Emma with a neutral expression for several seconds. “Knight Swan’s supposed to be you?”

Emma nodded and then, slowly, summarized the story of Knight Swan. It was more difficult than she expected to say the words. Was it because she was starting to believe them, despite how ridiculous they sounded?

When she had finished, Ruby was quiet, looking deep in thought. Finally, after almost a full minute, she looked at Emma with an oddly serious expression and said, “It’s a good story, romantic and shit. But I can definitely see why you would be so out of it, the character you’re supposed to be dying. That would freak anyone out.”

“Except that’s not really what’s bothering me anymore,” Emma said quietly, and Ruby looked at her curiously for a few seconds.

“Okay, I’ll bite. What’s actually bothering you?”

Emma tapped her fingers on the countertop for several seconds, debating on whether or not to tell Ruby. But she’d already told her Knight Swan’s story, and it wasn’t like she could ask advice from anyone else.

So she took a deep breath and said without looking at Ruby, “The curse. If it and everything else are real, and I feel so stupid for starting to believe that it is, then according to Henry, only True Love’s kiss can break it.” She peeked out of the corner of her eye to see Ruby looking at her carefully, her expression difficult to decipher. “And since I’m Knight Swan,” she added in a mumble.

It was quiet for a minute, Emma stalwartly staring into the bottom of her cup. Then, Ruby sighed. “You know, Henry’s told me a lot about this theory, so I know just how fiercely he believes this curse is real. But if I hadn’t, I would just think he wanted his two moms together.”

Emma let out a long breath and lifted her cup to drain the last of her hot chocolate, which was long cold by now. “I know, trust me. And I wouldn’t believe any of it if I hadn’t read the story myself and seen the pictures. It’s scary, just how accurate those pictures are compared to who Henry believes they are. Everything fits too well to be coincidence.”

“Then do you feel anything for Regina?” Ruby asked softly, carefully, and Emma appreciated her delicacy with the subject.

“I don’t know,” Emma admitted, and it wasn’t a lie. She’d thought about it a lot over the last few days, but even still, she couldn’t decide if she had feelings for Regina or not. “Sometimes I think I do, but then I wonder if I’m imagining them because of who we’re supposed to be.”

Ruby was silent for a minute before she reached out and rested a hand on Emma’s shoulder, drawing her attention away from the bottom of her empty cup. “If you think it’ll help, then go talk to Regina. She knows about Henry’s theories, right?” Emma nodded; she didn’t look up when the bell over the front door rang. “Then you might as well try. If it doesn’t work, then we’ll figure something else out.”

She gave Emma’s shoulder a comforting squeeze before returning to her spot behind the counter. Emma laid her head on top of her arms on the countertop and only grunted in thanks when another cup of hot chocolate was set in front of her.

* * *

Regina was different after Emma died. She rarely left the castle anymore or even her room some days, and she didn’t talk to her guards like she had before. Whereas before she’d only treated her enemies coldly, she’d begun snapping at her own men.

The reason for her extreme change was only explained when Red, who’d been an unusually somber werewolf during the most recent full moon, mentioned that she’d seen the queen and Emma kissing a few days before Rumplestiltskin’s attack.

Everyone understood after that. They’d seen the two grow close since Emma had been named head of the guard, but none had noticed the last step into something closer than friends. That was why Regina had known when Killian had gone to give her the news.

It was said that when someone’s True Love died, the other physically felt it, that it was an unbearable pain, which was what Red had described had caused Regina to faint while they had been fightin. She had felt when Emma had passed.

No one knew what to say after that.

/

Despite knowing who was behind the attack on the Summerlands, Regina couldn’t locate Rumplestiltskin no matter how hard she tried. He had simply vanished without a trace, and he wouldn’t reappear until he wanted to be found.

It was an entire moon after Emma’s death that he emerged again. When Regina returned to her room after a day spent out riding alone, she found the imp waiting in a chair in her chambers, and he grinned when he saw her.

“What do you want?” she snapped, and she felt her magic bubble as she clenched a fist. She wanted so badly to unleash it on him, but she knew that it would be useless. He was still far stronger than she was and would simply bat it away like it was nothing.

“Just checking on my favorite apprentice, seeing how she’s doing after her True Love’s death and all that.” He giggled, and Regina glared at him with as much venom as she could muster, cursing the fact that Rumplestiltskin seemed to know everything, even things that hadn’t happened yet.

Regina stalked over and sat on the edge of her bed, keeping her eyes on him the entire time. “You’ve had your laugh. Now leave.”

“Not yet,” he said with a wag of his finger. He waved his hand and produced a small, glass sphere that was glowing faintly purple. “I came to give you this as well.”

He held it out with a flourish, and with more than a bit of hesitation, she took it from him. “What is it?” she asked, briefly lowering her eyes to study the sphere.

“A curse,” Rumplestiltskin chirped, and he was suddenly sitting beside her on the bed. She flinched and shifted a few inches away; he didn’t act like he noticed. “Well, a curse for all but the caster. If you cast it, this entire realm will be transported to another world entirely where none but the caster will have their happy ending.”

Regina’s eyes widened, and she looked back at the sphere with a hunger gnawing in her chest. If she cast this, she could be happy again. Maybe she’d forget her loss and be able to live happily without the memory of her lost True Love.

But she knew only too well who she was dealing with. “What’s the catch?” she asked, and Rumplestiltskin laughed as if the idea was hysterical to him.

“No price, dearie. You get your happy ending, and I and everyone else are miserable for eternity.”

“Why would you give me something that wouldn’t make you happy?” she asked suspiciously, and Rumplestiltskin shrugged and stood up and began wandering the room, leaving her to study the sphere again.

“Just cast it,” Rumplestiltskin said after a minute. “After all, what have you got to lose?”

/

A short while later, Regina made her way out of the castle to the graveyard and to Emma and her father’s graves. The two most important people in her life were buried side by side, something which Emma’s parents hadn’t been able to deny her when she’d told them of her love for their daughter.

“What do I do?” she asked the graves as she kneeled before them.

Of course, there was no answer, but just being there helped. She felt close to them again, and if she shut her eyes, she could almost believe they were both still alive.

She sat there for a few hours until the sun had set and the only light was the faint glow of the torches set around the castle. Regina leaned forward and kissed both of the graves, then picked up the sphere where she’d set it upon first sitting down.

“Forgive me,” she whispered.

Then she crushed the sphere.

* * *

The next morning, Emma skipped breakfast to go straight to Regina’s office before work, determined to finally find out if the curse was real and doing her best not to talk herself out of it before she even got through the front door of the mayor’s office.

When she entered Regina’s office, it was obvious that Regina had just arrived herself, and she looked surprised to see Emma standing in the doorway. She set whatever she was reading back onto her desk and asked, “What is it, Miss Swan?”

Whatever small amount of courage she’d mustered drained out of Emma as the reminder of what she had come here to talk about sprang to mind, and Emma had a fierce urge to turn and walk away, to leave what was likely to be a horrible awkward conversation for another day.

But she was already here, and she’d look like even more of an idiot if she just up and left now. So she steeled herself and took a deep breath and asked, “How much do you know about Henry’s fairy tale theory?”

Immediately, Regina’s expression darkened, and she gave Emma an unreadable look and replied slowly, “Why? He hasn’t been bothering you about it again, has he?”

“No,” Emma replied quickly, because with the look on Regina’s face, she couldn’t say anything else. “I was the one that brought up the subject, to be honest. I was just wondering how much he’d shared with you.”

“Some,” Regina said tersely, as if this conversation was physically paining her. Her eyes narrowed suddenly. “You aren’t suddenly buying into his ridiculous theory, are you? I told you to stop encouraging him.”

Emma winced, and if it was possible, Regina’s expression became even more dangerous. “Wait, just hear me out first!” she said hurriedly, and waited on edge until Regina finally nodded, looking as if she regretted the decision as soon as she made it. “Have you heard the story of Knight Swan?”

Only because she was watching for it did Emma see the slight flinch from Regina at the name, and something cold curled in the pit of her stomach. It was only for a fraction of second and Regina recovered instantly, but it had been there.

“I don’t believe so,” Regina said smoothly and met the sharp look Emma gave her perfectly evenly. “Why?”

Regina’s reaction to Knight Swan’s name was the final confirmation Emma needed. There was something bigger at work here. Henry had been right, though to what extent she wasn’t yet sure. She knew what she needed to ask next, but the words stuck in her throat briefly.

“Because Henry thinks that I’m her. Except she died in the story, and I was pretty alive the last time I checked.” Never mind that it had been just a few days ago; there was no need to sound even crazier than she already did.

There was another subtle flinch from Regina that Emma saw, and it felt like an eternity before Regina finally spoke, slow and carefully even. “It seems to me that Henry’s theories are becoming more and more absurd. He can’t possibly believe you died and were brought back to life by that stupid curse.”

“He was pretty adamant about it when I mentioned how ridiculous it was.”

Regina huffed and opened her mouth to say something, only to be stopped by a knock on the door. Emma turned around quickly, heart leaping into her throat, ridiculously on edge from the conversation they’d been in the middle of.

It was Regina’s secretary, looking anxious. “Your meeting is in ten minutes, Miss Mills,” she said, eyes flicking from Emma standing in the middle of the office with her deputy’s badge and gun in plain sight. Emma made a point to wipe her expression and look like she belonged here.

“Of course. Thank you,” Regina said, an obvious dismissal in her voice, and the woman nodded and quickly scurried away.

“I’m sorry,” Emma said as she turned back to Regina, who was shuffling papers on her desk and refusing to look up. “I shouldn’t have done this here. I’m going to go now.”

Slowly, she began walking backward toward the door, watching for a reaction from Regina, and when one didn’t seem forthcoming, she turned and began walking faster, eager to escape the sudden awkwardness in the room.

“Emma!” Regina called just as Emma was stepping over the threshold of the room. She stopped mid-step and looked back over her shoulder, confusion obvious on her face. “Would you like to come over for dinner tonight? We can finish our conversation then.”

Emma blinked a few times, struggling to understand the sudden change in demeanor Regina had just gone through. Not a minute ago, she hadn’t wanted to talk at all, and now she was offering to continue?

“S-sure,” Emma finally managed with a shaky nod. “Yeah, that sounds great.”

“Seven, then,” Regina said, and Emma nodded dumbly and watched as Regina focused back on her papers in an obvious dismissal, realizing as she turned and left that any hope she had of getting anything done today had just been crushed.

/

Around eleven as she was trying to stay focused and finish paperwork that Graham had been nagging her to do for over a week, Emma almost fell out of her chair as the ground shook underneath her, rattling the windows. She quickly planted a hand on the nearby wall for balance and dropped her feet from her desk, heart pounding as the shaking slowly stopped.

As soon as it had, she leaped to her feet and saw Riley do the same across the room. Graham appeared in the doorway of his office, pale-faced, and without a word, turned and jogged down the hallway toward the exit, Emma and Riley only a few steps behind him.

Nothing looked out of the ordinary outside, but somehow, Emma knew that something was terribly wrong. After all, after the last earthquake, a giant chasm had appeared in the middle of the woods. What could have happened this time?

A full minute passed in tense silence before Emma’s bad feeling was confirmed. Around the corner came a person, or at least what had at one point been a person. The thing’s skin was a pale, gray color and hanging off its visible bones, and its eyes were pale as it turned to stare at them, stopping in its tracks when it noticed them standing there, transfixed in horror.

Graham moved first, hand flying to the holster on his hip and pulling out his pistol, but Emma wasn’t surprised when the three shots he fired at the zombie - because what the fuck _else_ could it be? - passed through easily, leaving no trace of damage behind.

The bullets Riley fired had the same effect, and as Emma stared, she recalled the story she’d read just a few days ago. Henry’s book had described an army of the living dead, difficult to harm with even arrows or blades, that had attacked a kingdom. That was the battle where Knight Swan had died.

She felt cold, even though she’d actually been warm a few minutes ago, and without knowing why, she turned on her heel and began running toward the mayor’s office, toward Regina.

Adrenaline made it feel like an hour before she reached the building, but she didn’t stop to check as she took the stairs three at a time and bypassed Regina’s startled secretary without even a glance in her direction and burst into the office.

The door bounced off the wall, and Regina’s head jerked up, eyes wide in shock. True to form, she recovered quickly and narrowed her eyes at Emma, but Emma didn’t even give her a chance to say anything before she all but yelled, “Zombies!”

Regina’s cool expression disappeared immediately, and she paled visibly. “Excuse me?” she said faintly, standing up on shaky legs.

Out of breath from her sprint, Emma took a moment to take a few slow breaths before speaking quickly. “Zombies outside. They appeared when the earthquake stopped. Bullets don’t work on them.”

“You’re sure they’re zombies, and you’re not, I don’t know, hallucinating?”

“I’m sure,” Emma replied dryly, a bit of venom sneaking into her voice. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. She remembered every time something unusual had happened before, Regina had always been calm, eerily so sometimes, but she looked like she was beginning to panic now and one of them had to keep their shit together.

She needed to go back out and fight the zombies with Graham and Riley or at least keep them away from the town, send them off somewhere else until they could figure out how to get rid of them permanently.

But she only made it a few steps toward the door before a hand wrapped around her upper arm, nails biting into the skin there. She winced at the sudden pain and turned her head, temper flaring, to snap at Regina to let her go.

When she saw the expression on Regina’s face, though, she stopped cold, the words dying in her throat at the pure terror in Regina’s eyes. In all the time she’d known Regina, she’d never seen her show her emotions so blatantly, and she realized then that Henry had been right about everything.

She felt more calm in that moment than she had since the first zombie appeared, and despite everything else that was happening outside, Emma turned around completely to face Regina, a faint smile on her face. And then, as if on autopilot, she reached out and cradled Regina’s face in her palms in a way that felt completely normal and leaned forward and kissed her.

It was like someone had kicked her in the chest, and she was faintly aware of a surge of light bursting out from them, blowing papers off Regina’s desk and rattling the window panes and her mind flooding with memories that she only then realized she had been missing for eleven years.

Then Regina came alive and pressed back against her, hands grasping at the back of her neck and trying to pull her closer than was physically possible, and Emma smiled against her lips because for the first time in a long time, she felt she was exactly where she belonged.

/

Riley backpedaled quickly away from the clumsy swipe the zombie - it was a zombie, it had to be - and struck back with the old, rusty pipe she’d found in an alley between two apartment buildings. The zombie’s skull cracked loudly and caved in, and the zombie crumpled into a pile on the ground.

As she lifted her arms to finish the damn thing, she was almost knocked to the ground by something knocking into her back. Luckily, she managed to keep her footing and even accidentally kicked the zombie’s head off when she stumbled.

It felt like an empty spot in her mind she hadn’t even realized was there until now was being filled quickly. In a few seconds, it was over, and Riley - no, her name was Mulan - blinked and stumbled drunkenly sideways into a nearby building.

She quickly righted herself just in time to fend off another attack. Once she’d easily batted the zombie away, she turned toward where Graham - Remus - had been fighting before her memories had returned.

He was standing in the middle of the street, wooden plant hanging limply from his fingers and doubled over with his hand on his knee keeping him from falling flat onto his face.

As she watched, he lifted his head and gave her a tired smile and a nod.

/

The sight of the wave headed straight for her terrified Ruby, but she stood her ground because there was no way she could hope to avoid it. Across the room, Dawn shrieked as the wave passed them.

Ruby wheezed, the air knocked from the lungs, and leaned heavily against the diner’s counter, feeling as if all the energy in her body had been sucked out.

Something ached in her chest, and she clutched at her head, expecting to hear a snarl and surprised when it didn’t come. She frowned and lifted her head, confused and still feeling empty despite the memories now swirling in her mind.

Dawn was sitting on the floor of the diner with a comically shocked expression on her face, and it seemed to take her a few seconds to remember that Ruby was there.

“Red?” She was staring at Ruby with clear fear in her expression as she clutched at her head, and Ruby realized that she must look terrifying right now in her panicked state.

“I-I can’t feel my wolf,” Ruby managed, and she sounded hysterical even to herself. “It’s not there!”

She’d been without her wolf for a long time, but it’s hard to miss something when you’re not aware it even exists. Now that she remembered, the empty feeling where her wolf should have been was pushing her into a panic.

Aurora stood up quickly, but before she could even take one step toward the counter, the door to the diner burst open. Ruby turned, the movement feeling to her sluggish without the hyper-awareness that her wolf provided, just as Caitlyn - no, Belle, her name was Belle, or did she prefer her other name? - grabbed her in a tight hug.

It took several seconds for Ruby to react, but when Aurora crashed into them and wrapped her arms around both of them with a laugh, she hugged Belle back and wondered if her hugs had always been this strong.

/

August paused, tapping his pen against his desk as he tried the best way to phrase his next sentence. As he stared at his hand lost in thought, he had a sudden memory of holding a sword in that hand instead, of cutting down trees with an ax.

He stood straight up in shock, wondering where the sudden memory had come from, and didn’t even notice that he’d knocked his desk chair over, too distracted by the feeling of memories returning like someone was pouring them directly into his skull.

Even as the memories were still returning and slotting themselves back into place, he turned and stumbled toward the front door of his apartment.

/

The force of the wave passing him knocked Devlin clear out of his bed, and he landed hard on the floor and groaned loudly as his head throbbed with the force of his hangover.

His head felt like a blender turned on high as he reached up and scrabbled at his bed to try and get himself onto his feet, though once he was standing up, he wanted to be anywhere else. The urge to vomit flooded over him, but he held it down and staggered toward the door of his bedroom.

It took him several tries to make it out the front door of his house, and when he noticed the zombies shuffling around in his front yard, he gave up and doubled over and vomited.

/

David ran a hand through his hair and sighed, searching desperately for the best way to reply that wouldn’t end badly for him. Judging from the way Mary Margaret was glaring daggers at him, he suspected it would be impossible. This was why he hadn’t wanted to have this conversation, but he’d promised Emma that he would, although that had been so long ago that he was feeling guilty.

He sighed again and opened his mouth, resigned to his painful fate, only to stop, blinking stupidly at the formerly very angry women who was now staring up at him with her mouth hanging open and her eyes huge.

Relief flooded through him, and he would have laughed if he wasn’t so busy kissing his wife for the first time in eleven years.

/

After what felt like both forever and not nearly long enough, Emma pulled back and looked at Regina. She was crying, but she smiled as Emma lifted her hands and gently wiped her thumbs across her cheeks.

“I’m sorry it took me so long,” she said with a smile of her own, but Regina just laughed and leaned forward to kiss her again briefly.

“That story would be difficult for anyone to believe,” Regina said with a hint of her usual sarcasm, and Emma’s smile widened.

They stood there in silence for a minute until a scream from outside brought Emma back to reality with an unpleasant bump. Their memories might be fixed, but apparently, the zombie problem hadn’t been.

Emma reluctantly stepped backward out of the loose embrace they’d been in and thumped a fist over her heart in a salute. As she did, she noticed Regina flinch, but before she could begin to wonder why, Regina shook herself and stepped behind her desk and opened up a hidden panel in the wall to reveal Emma’s old sword in the sheath she’d been wearing when she’d died - her head throbbed painfully at the thought, old memories clashing with new.

She gratefully accepted the sword when Regina held it out to her and kissed her once more before turning to leave, surprised when she heard footsteps behind her.

Regina stepped up beside her and lifted her chin defiantly when Emma frowned at her, and it only took a few seconds to realize that it would be useless to argue. There was no way she was going to be able to convince Regina to stay where it was safe, because the last time Emma had fought zombies, she’d died.

So she just nodded and led the way out of Regina’s office.

/

In the time Emma had been inside, the zombies had doubled in number, and by the time they finally made it to the sheriff’s station, Emma was covered in zombie guts, much to her disgust.

She had been worried about Riley and Graham, but they seemed perfectly in control of the situation when Emma found them. As she watched, Graham broke a wooden plank hitting a zombie’s head like a baseball bat, and the head went flying through the air as the body slumped to the ground, motionless.

Riley was the first one to notice them, and judging from her lack of reaction to the sword in Emma’s hand, they must have gotten their memories back as well. Henry had been right about the kiss; it had apparently broken the curse on everyone else too.

“It’s just like last time,” Riley said when she was close enough to speak, and she was covered in zombie flesh too, but of course, she didn’t seem bothered at all by it, which was comforting to Emma in that it meant that Riley definitely had Mulan’s memories back. “They just keep coming. We can’t hold them off forever.”

She gave Regina a small nod of respect that Regina returned as she removed another zombie’s head from its body.

Graham appeared as well, looking tired but still standing, and he smiled at all of them despite their current situation. “I’ll hug you later, Emma,” he said, then asked, “What should we do?”

“I’m open to suggestions,” Emma replied dryly, wracking her brain for a plan. She’d died last time she’d been faced with these things; her head throbbed painfully at the memory again.

Died. That was it!

“Rumplestiltskin!” she exclaimed, and the others all looked at her with varying degrees of surprise. Regina’s eyes narrowed dangerously, and Emma saw her fingers twitch, a subconscious call for magic, but there was no crackle of magic in her hands. Was there no magic here? Then how had the zombies appeared?

Somehow, it had to do with Rumplestiltskin, she knew. Without a word, she turned, slicing a zombie apart as she did, and began to clear a path toward Gold’s pawn shop.

A relatively short walk was transformed into a fifteen minute trek through town, and Emma was exhausted by the time they arrived at the pawn shop, her muscles unused to the movements used with a sword.

After trying the door and finding it locked, Emma and Graham easily knocked it off the hinges together.

At the back of the shop behind the counter, Gold looked up from the bottles he’d been fiddling with and smirked at Emma, who saw red at her murderer’s smug expression. She crossed the room quickly, only vaguely aware of the others following close behind and calling for her to calm down.

She ignored them and easily hopped the counter, grabbing Gold by the throat in the same motion and lifting him off his feet and slamming him against the wall of his shop, forearm against his throat.

“Why did you kill me?” she snarled, and she could feel herself begin to shake with fury as Gold just giggled cheerily, as if he was the one in control of the situation.

“Because if I hadn’t, Regina never would have cast the curse to bring us here. I had minions try to kill you many times, in fact, but you know the saying. If you want it done right, do it yourself!”

Emma pressed harder against his throat, but Gold only sputtered for a few seconds before recovering his composure. She found that the more pressure she put on, the more his composure slipped. Could she actually kill him if she kept pushing?

There were hands on her, wrapping around her arms and shoulders and pulling hard, and Emma could just barely hear their voices, yelling at her to stop. She ignored them and fought against their strength, but eventually, they overwhelmed her, and she found herself held tightly between Riley and Graham and went limp, knowing it was useless to fight both of them.

Gold hit the ground and fell to his knees, wheezing harshly and clutching at his chest, and Emma glared at him and wished she was close enough to kick him in the teeth. Now that they were separated, she felt eerily calm again, her anger reduced to boiling just under the surface.

“Why did you summon the zombies again?” she asked and felt her friends grip her tighter in response, as if they were afraid she was going to try and break free. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Regina watching her carefully, looking mildly horrified by Emma’s outburst; Emma kept her eyes on Gold and tried not to look at Regina.

She could hear the surprise from Riley and Graham at her question, but Gold just stood up straight, looking his irritating perfectly poised self again. “Because I need magic in this land, and the only way to do that is to break the curse. And in order to do that, I needed to create a situation that would force you to do so.” He shrugged. “Or everyone would die, but I was hopeful.”

Emma would have spit on him if she was close enough but settled for continuing to glare at him instead.

“The earthquake before was me trying to summon the zombies; that was the only thing I could do with the curse still active. But that obviously didn’t work. It just made a giant hole in the middle of the forest.”

Riley and Graham glanced at each other, confused, but Gold continued without even glancing at them, turning instead to look at Regina, whose expression hadn’t changed. “I knew you’d be looking for the person responsible, but I guess my acting skills haven’t deteriorated in the years we’ve been here.”

The look Regina gave him was pure venom, but once again, Gold ignored it. “And now that the curse is broken, we can bring magic here to Storybrooke. And once it’s back, we - or more accurately, you - can easily get rid of the zombies.”

There was a long silence, Regina glaring at Gold and Gold grinning back at her. Finally, after what felt like forever, Regina spoke.

“How do we get magic back then?” she asked, her tone icy, but Gold didn’t seem affected, clapping his hands together cheerily.

“Thank you for asking. I have all the ingredients - your little curse brought all of my things over - so all we need to do is make the mixture and that will bring the natural magic to this land.”

Regina stared at him for a minute, looking hesitant, before nodding stiffly and agreeing to help him. Gold, of course, looked thrilled at her acceptance and immediately shuffled her off into the back of the shop, leaving Emma, Graham, and Riley alone.

For a minute, Graham and Riley simply stood there, arms still holding Emma still, before what had happened seemed to catch up with them and they released Emma from between them.

They exchanged glances as she stepped away and rubbed at her arms. Bruises were going to form; her body wasn’t used to what it had been back in the other world. When she realized that both of them were looking at her expectantly, she sighed.

“Go back outside and make sure no one’s in danger,” she said, and Riley nodded and turned and left the shop, but Graham lingered, looking at her questioningly. “I’m staying here. I’ll keep the shop safe.”

He still looked worried, more than likely wondering if he’d find her later over Gold’s dead body after her last outburst, but Emma met his gaze firmly, and after several long seconds, Graham nodded and left as well.

As the door shut behind him, Emma picked up her sword where she had dropped it immediately upon entering the shop. Maybe she hadn’t wanted to kill Gold, she thought, as she stared down at the blade. If she had, why would she have dropped it, even subconsciously?

She glanced back over her shoulder toward where Gold and Regina had disappeared to and tightened her grip on her sword. As much as she didn’t like it, they needed him now; they needed to give Regina her magic, even if that meant giving Gold his as well.

That meant keeping his shop safe while he and Regina worked. Through the shop windows, she could see zombies shuffling around, some of them stopping and staring at the shop as if they could sense the humans inside.

Right now, protecting Regina meant protecting Gold as well, so Emma steeled herself for the fight and stepped out of the pawn shop with her sword raised, making sure to leave the door ajar so she could here if= something happened inside.

Immediately, the nearby zombies turned at her appearance and began pulling themselves in her direction, arms raised in anticipation. Emma raised her sword but froze as the memory of fighting the zombies in the Summerlands flashed in her mind.

She squeezed her eyes shut briefly in the hopes that would allow her to pull herself together, but when she opened them, the zombies were laying in pieces on the ground, Devlin standing over them with a triumphant grin on his face and a broken piece of plywood in his hands.

“Swan,” he said cheerfully, swaying slightly on his feet but quickly regaining his balance. I promised you I’d help when you needed it, right? Figured getting all my memories back meant you were in some deep shit. Can’t say I’m happy to be right.”

“First time for everything,” Emma replied with a smile, and Devlin laughed and dropped the broken piece of wood he was still holding to hug her.

/

Emma knew that Devlin was happy to see her, but now wasn’t the time, not with hordes of zombies still roaming the town. So Devlin just told her he’d buy her a drink later and have her tell the whole story and took to helping her keep the zombies away from the shop.

It was close to fifteen minutes later when Regina and Gold finally appeared out of the shop, the latter holding a small bottle in his hand, which he held up with a grin to Emma.

“Now what?” she asked, and Gold pointed past her toward the large hill on the edge of town.

“Get a move on, then, Deputy,” he said, and Emma glared at him for a moment before turning and starting off toward where Gold had indicated.

As they walked, Emma noticed that the zombies scattered at their approach now. She wondered if it was Gold’s presence that held them at bay. Could they sense his power, or was it because he was the one that had summoned them here?

Whatever the reason, it was a relief to not have to fight them. Her muscles were burning after so long using her sword, especially after not having used it for eleven years. She didn’t sheathe her sword, though, worried that if she did, the zombies would turn on them.

She felt a hand on her arm as they began climbing the hill, which for some reason was free of zombies, and Emma jumped in surprise and almost punched whoever it was before realizing it was Regina, looking concerned.

“Are you okay?” she asked quietly, and in the same moment, Devlin behind them loudly asked Gold what exactly they were doing in an obvious attempt to keep Gold from listening in on their conversation. Emma had missed Hook, asshole that he could be sometimes.

“I’m fine,” Emma replied, but it was obvious by Regina’s expression that she didn’t believe her. Emma sighed. “It’s just, I remember dying and there’s a scar where I was stabbed, but I’m still here somehow.”

Regina squeezed her arm. “When you brought Henry home and I saw you for the first time in so long, I almost didn’t believe you were real, that everything was just a dream and I’d wake up soon and you’d be gone.”

When Emma looked at Regina, she had a distant expression on her face. They’d both been through an ordeal, but hopefully, it would all be over soon. With any luck, once they returned Regina’s magic, she would be able to destroy the zombies for good.

So she shifted so she could take Regina’s hand and threaded their fingers together. “It’s almost over,” she said softly, and Regina squeezed her hand gratefully with a small smile.

Behind them, Emma could still here Devlin pestering Gold, who seemed to be becoming more irritated by the second, which only seemed to encourage Devlin more. Emma told herself she’d buy Devlin a drink too as thanks.

By the time they reached the top of the hill, Gold was leading the way, and Devlin was walking a half-step behind Emma with a smug, satisfied grin on his face.

The only thing on the hill was a well sitting in the middle of a small clearing, stones stacked haphazardly and leaning several degrees to the left. To Emma, it looked like it could fall over at any second and definitely not something that could bring magic to Storybrooke.

But Gold headed straight for it, bottle in his fist, and Emma stopped beside Regina on the edge of the clearing and watched skeptically as Gold uncorked the small bottle and dumped the contents down into the well.

For a long minute, nothing happened, and Gold’s face slowly contorted into something more like his scaly otherworld counterpart, until he looked like he could literally breathe fire, magic or no. Emma couldn’t say she was surprised; it was just an old well, not a portal back to the Enchanted Forest. But at least it didn’t look like Gold had been tricking them.

Except Emma had never really had a deep understanding of magic and how it worked, so when a large purple cloud burst out of the well, she recoiled in surprise, fingers tightening on her sword instinctively.

The cloud swept over them quickly, and Emma began coughing and sheathed her sword to pull the collar of her jacket up to cover her mouth and nose. She could barely see anything through the cloud, whatever it was, and held tight to Regina’s hand and dropped her jacket to reach out and grab Devlin by his shoulder, worried he’d stumble in his hangover stupor and they’d have to scrape him off a rock.

Eventually, the air began to clear, and Regina’s hand began to burn in Emma’s. She didn’t let go, though, just held tight and coughed again, her face now unprotected from the cloud.

“What happened?” Emma asked when she could finally see her surroundings again. Some of the purple cloud still lingered, swirling on the ground near their feet and clinging to the trees.

Regina’s hand was still burning, and when Emma looked at her, she understood why. That cloud had been magic returning to this land, proven as Regina raised a hand and a small flame sprung to being in her palm.

In all the time Emma had known Regina in the other world, she’d very rarely seen Regina do magic. Regina had always been worried her secret would be leaked to the entire realm and had therefore tried her best to keep it hidden from everyone except those closest to her.

It was different here, though. Everyone was here because of Regina’s magic, and before the day was out, Emma was sure everyone in town would know it. They’d want answers, of course, and if they didn’t want a revolt on their hands, they would have to tell them.

But right now, Regina seemed to be celebrating the return of her magic if the triumphant grin on her face was any indication. Emma smiled as well because they could finally be rid of these zombies for good. She’d had more than enough of them.

Gold had disappeared at some point, Emma realized when she looked away from Regina, who seemed to be trying to get her magic back under control. After so long without it, she would probably have to get used to its presence again; she’d once told Emma how violent her magic could get if she didn’t release some occasionally. It was probably overflowing right now.

While Regina regained control, Emma turned to Devlin, who looked disoriented and was rubbing at his eyes and still coughing. “You okay?” she asked, since if he was acting like this, odds were he hadn’t seen Gold leave.

“Yeah, just give me a minute,” Devlin said, then coughed a few more times.

The walk down the hill wasn’t nearly as long as the one up, and by the time they entered the town again, Regina seemed to have her magic under control. Without Gold, the zombies turned to them immediately, and Emma raised her sword, only for the zombies to disappear in a burst of flames.

There were piles of ashes all across their corner of Main Street now, and when Emma turned back to Regina, she looked entirely too smug at how easily she’d destroyed the zombies. Emma couldn’t do anything but laugh to herself and smile at Regina and lead the way down the street.

/

By the time they were sure all of the zombies have been destroyed, the sun had long since set, and the small group of them that had been rounding up the zombies for Regina to burn were exhausted. Leroy in particular was very vocal about his unhappiness, at least until Ruby threatened to take a bite out of his leg. He shut up after that.

The diner had been kept open for them, and there was food waiting when they arrived, all of them bone tired and covered in grime. Even Regina hadn’t been able to avoid being splattered with zombie guts, and she leaned heavily against Emma as they headed for the diner.

As soon as they stepped through the door, they were met by Henry, who crashed into them in a hug and began yelling about how happy he was that they’d finally broken the curse. Despite how exhausted she looked, Regina smiled and knelt down to hug him properly, and Henry returned it eagerly, seemingly unaffected by the zombie guts on her jacket.

Mary Margaret and David weren’t far behind him, and they both grabbed Emma in a hug hard enough to crack a few ribs. Emma just smiled and let them crush her between the two of them and soaked in the feeling of her parents’ affection, an odd feeling after so many years believing she was an orphan.

“Thank you,” she heard her dad say, “for bringing her back, Your Majesty.”

“Regina is fine here. And I can’t really accept your gratitude. What I did was entirely selfish and done because I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time. I had no idea that curse would bring Emma back.”

“Nevertheless.”

Emma turned in her parents’ grip to see David holding an arm out to Regina and beckoning her closer. There was a bit of hesitancy in her eyes, but Regina stepped forward, Henry a half-step behind her, and David drew both of them into the hug, Emma stuck in the middle. Henry giggled.

“Welcome to the family, Regina,” David said, and though Emma felt her face heat up, Regina just smiled and leaned against David’s shoulder and Emma decided that a little embarrassment was worth it if it made Regina happy.

/

Most of the town had heard about the curse that brought them to Storybrooke while Emma and the others had been out fighting the zombies, which Emma was grateful for. She hadn’t wanted people harassing them all night, not after the day she’d had.

Luckily, everyone seemed too relieved to have their memories back to worry about how or even if they could return to the other world. It wasn’t really home anymore, after living here so many years, even if they had all been acting with false memories the entire time.

Emma was glad, because Regina didn’t look up to the inquisition. She’d almost fallen asleep in the booth they were sharing more than once, despite the cups of coffee Ruby kept bringing her.

It was almost midnight when the worrying question of where Gold was finally had an answer. Emma didn’t even notice he’d stepped into the diner at first, until everyone went deathly silent, that is.

When she looked up, everyone had stepped back from Gold, who was standing in the doorway looking unaffected by the looks he was getting. He was staring at Caitlyn sitting at the bar, who was looking back at him with wide eyes.

Emma stood up out of the booth at the same time Ruby and Dawn moved, both of them shifting so they were standing between Gold and Caitlyn. Ruby’s lips were pulled back in a snarl so vicious some of the other occupants of the diner physically recoiled from her, but for once, Ruby didn’t seem bothered.

“Get out,” she growled, and it sounded feral in a way Emma had never really heard Ruby sound before.

Gold’s eyes shifted to her, but his calm expression didn’t flicker in the slightest. In fact, he even took a step forward, and Riley and Graham quickly stood up and set their hands on the guns on their belts.

“Belle,” Gold said, and his voice seemed magnified in the silence. Emma saw Caitlyn stiffen and took a step forward, feeling Regina step up to her shoulder. “Come back with me. I did this for you; I gave Regina the curse so I could find you again.”

He took another step forward, and every muscle in Ruby’s body tensed threateningly. If Gold wasn’t careful, he was like to find himself staring at his own innards. Emma thought she might let Ruby do it, too.

Behind Ruby, Caitlyn clutched at the back of Ruby’s leather jacket, seemingly both out of fear and stopping Ruby from ripping Gold’s throat out.

“Please,” Gold said, a plaintive note in his voice that Emma knew without a doubt was put on. Gold had made his living in the other world taking advantage of people’s feelings, toying with them with an ease that came from decades of practice.

The silence stretched out, and everyone waited to see who would react first. Emma could feel the crackle of magic on Regina’s skin where their arms touched, Graham and Riley’s hands had tightened on the grips of their guns, and Ruby looked a breath away from launching herself at Gold.

Then, finally, Caitlyn slid off her stool and stepped around Ruby, who turned to watch her for a few seconds before looking back at Gold. Her eyes had turned bright yellow, Emma noticed, but she seemed more in control of herself now than she had since Gold had walked in.

“No,” Caitlyn said, and her voice was strong with no trace of hesitation. She met Gold’s eyes without flinching. “I’m going to stay here with Ruby and the others. And I want you to leave them alone; don’t you dare try to hurt them.”

For less than a second, so briefly that Emma wasn’t sure if she’d imagined it or not, Gold looked sad, actually affected by Caitlyn’s words, but in the time it took to blink, the expression was gone and he looked furious.

He scowled and spat at Ruby’s feet before turning and stalking out of the diner, and in the silence that followed, it took Riley, Graham, and Devlin to hold Ruby back from chasing him down the street.

“He was lying,” Caitlyn said quietly, hands clenched in her skirt and staring down at the floor. “He did this for his son, not for me.” Emma was surprised to hear that Gold had a kid, but right now wasn’t the time to worry about that. It could be dealt with later.

Once Ruby’s temper was back under control and she had disappeared into the back of the diner along with a few others, people begin leaving, as if the confrontation for Gold was the sign that the celebration was over.

Graham hugged Emma before he left, and she had a feeling that he wasn’t going home to bed. Had Romulus been brought here too? She’d ask Regina later, if she didn’t see the wolf first.

Regina leaved heavily against her when they stood up, and on her other side, Henry held tight to her hand and rubbed tiredly at his eyes. David and Mary Margaret smiled at them as they approached.

“I’m going to make sure these two don’t fall asleep on the sidewalk,” Emma told them, and the glance they shared made Emma think they weren’t surprised by her decision in the slightest.

“Of course, honey,” Mary Margaret said and stood up and pulled Emma into a hug, and David smiled at her and ruffled her hair the way Emma always did to Henry. She smiled back at him.

After they’d both hugged Henry, who’d grinned tiredly at them and called them Gram and Gramps like he’d been doing it his entire life, which made them both beam at him and hug him tighter, they began the walk back to the mansion. It felt longer than usual, understandable with her pulling two half-asleep people along.

As soon as they stepped through the door, Henry announced he was going to bed, something Emma had never heard of him doing before, and he hugged Regina before turning to Emma, grinning brightly at her despite how tired he obviously was.

He threw his arms around her neck and said, “You did it, Ma. You broke the curse and brought all the happy endings back.”

“No, kid,” she told him, and he pulled back to frown at her. “You did it. If it weren’t for you, we would all be zombie food right now.”

Henry frowned, seeming to consider her words. Then his face lit up and he hugged her again before bouncing upstairs with more energy than he’d shown all day. Emma smiled after him and saw Regina doing the same when she glanced at her.

“C’mon,” she said and offered Regina her hand, “let’s get you to bed.”

Regina went without protest, allowing Emma to pull her up the stairs and into her room. Luckily, she had managed to avoid being completely covered with zombie guts, so Regina could just crawl into bed and go to sleep. Emma, on the other hand, felt as though a million showers would never make her clean. She’d probably ruined her jacket too.

By the time she had finally washed off all of the zombie guts on her body, Regina was asleep curled up in the center of the bed, but as Emma watched, she shifted and twisted in the sheets. Henry had told her once that his mom never seemed to get enough sleep; it looked like he’d been right.

But she was sleeping, which had to count for something, so Emma turned to leave the bedroom, intent on the couch in the living room, only to stop when she heard her name.

Regina had woken up and was looking at Emma with surprising clarity for how tired she’d seemed just a half-hour ago. “Idiot,” she mumbled, though Emma could hear affection in the word. “Come here.”

After a moment of hesitation, Emma crossed the room and crawled under the covers. It was obvious that Regina’s bed was of much higher quality than the one she’d been using in the loft for the past few months; it felt like the mattress was trying to absorb her.

She lifted her arm as Regina scooted closer and wrapped it around her when she rested her head on Emma’s shoulder, and that more than anything made Emma feel as if everything was back to normal.

Neither of them said anything for a few minutes, and though Emma knew they needed to talk, she also knew that both of them were exhausted and needed to sleep. Just as she was finally drifting off to sleep, Regina spoke.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and immediately, Emma opened her eyes and looked at her, confused. “For casting that spell on you when we first met to convince you to join my guard. I’m sorry.”

The way she was speaking, Emma could tell she’d been dwelling on this for a long time, likely even back when they’d been in the other realm. This had been tormenting her for well over a decade, probably had been even worse after she’d died.

Emma shifted her arm to take Regina’s hand in hers and gave it a squeeze. “Back in the other world, as I was dying, I felt that spell break over me. It hadn’t been working for years, I could tell. That spell didn’t have anything to do with how I felt toward you. And anyway, it’s not like we could have broken the curse if it wasn’t True Love.”

When Regina didn’t respond, Emma shifted to look at her, worried she’d said the wrong thing, only to see Regina’s eyes brimming with tears. Emma’s heart ached, and she smiled as she reached up and brushed the tears from Regina’s cheek, and as she did, Regina smiled back at her.

“I love you,” Emma said, the first time she had without the spell on her, just to prove to Regina without doubt that everything was fine.

Regina’s smile widened, and in a voice thick with tears, she said, “I love you too. So much.”

And then she leaned forward and kissed Emma, and in that moment with the tips of Emma’s fingers tingling with what she belatedly realized was Regina’s magic, everything was how it should be. Nothing mattered but the two of them. Everything else could be dealt with in the morning.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry for killing Emma. Again. (I'm seeing a pattern. Are you?) But she's alive in the end this time, at least!
> 
> If anyone caught my Persona 4 reference without this prompting, I'll marry you.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and make sure to give the artist your love too!


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